Despite now being the nation's flag carrier, Spanish low-cost operator Vueling is the country's largest airline by fleet size. It operates more than 100 Airbus jets out of bases all over Europe on an extensive point-to-point network. Let's take a look at the aircraft that Vueling flies.
Older A320 family designs
According to data from ch-aviation.com, there are presently 125 aircraft in the Vueling Airlines fleet. As established, all are Airbus models, and the most numerous aircraft family in this case is the original A320ceo. Aircraft from this series account for 80% of the fleet, totaling 100 planes, with the smallest in size and number being the A319, with six examples.
Moving up in size, the larger A320 is the most common aircraft in Vueling's fleet as a whole, with 76 examples present. These alone make up more than 60% of the Spanish low-cost carrier's total available aircraft. 68 of the 76 A320s are presently active, and they have an average age of 10.6 years old. According to SeatGuru, they typically seat 180 passengers.
Vueling also operates 18 examples of the stretched-fuselage A321, with all of these being active at the time of writing. These 220-seat twinjets are younger than their smaller Airbus A320ceo family counterparts, as they clock in at just 6.3 years old on average.
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The A320neo series
In recent years, Vueling has also begun to modernize its narrowbody fleet through the addition of aircraft from the next-generation A320neo family. At the time of writing, it had 25 A320neos at its disposal (all active). These modern single-aisle twinjets are just 3.2 years old on average, and each of them seats 186 passengers.
Going forward, ch-aviation's data shows that Vueling has a further eight A320neos on order. It is also planning to take delivery of 12 examples of the stretched-fuselage A321neo. These 20 new aircraft will help cement Vueling's position as Spain's largest airline by fleet size. Three are set to come from VietJet Air.
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Vueling has also leased a widebody in the past
While Vueling's present setup consists entirely of narrowbody twinjets, it has also previously made use of a widebody aircraft. As Simple Flying reported in October 2021, the Barcelona-based budget airline leased an Airbus A330 from Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus to help boost capacity on routes out of its Paris CDG operating base. Registered as EI-DUZ, it is now just over 15 years old.
The aircraft, which has a current market value of just over $19 million, seats 317 passengers in a two-class setup. It has 30 business class flatbeds laid out either four or five seats abreast, with a 287-seat economy section behind them with the typical 2-4-2 configuration. Data from ATDB.aero shows that it flew for Vueling from November 2021 to January 2022, before returning to Aer Lingus.
What do you make of Vueling's present fleet? How many of the Spanish low-cost carrier's aircraft have you flown on? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments!