Vueling has announced 28 routes from Paris Orly, each beginning in early November. Another four – currently unknown – will be put on sale soon, meaning 52 routes will operate from the airport this winter. This development comes after the carrier was granted 18 slots in exchange for Air France receiving government financial support.

Vueling adds 28 routes from Paris Orly so far

It is unusual for so many routes to be announced together, but that has happened with Vueling and Paris Orly. With all 28 routes taking off between November 2nd and November 5th, as shown in the following table, there will be 68 weekly departures in total, so about ten daily.

The average number of flights per route is two, with this frequency very commonplace nowadays in leisure-driven markets. Only Dublin will be served daily. While each day of the week has similar levels of flights, Friday to Monday do have more. This is similar to Breeze in the US, with more flying on higher demanded days, so less need to discount as much.

Interestingly, both Glasgow and Edinburgh will be served with five-weekly services in all. Vueling could have reduced costs and complexity and consolidated marketing efforts on one airport. However, it would also have increased risk by focusing on one market while putting all of its eggs in one basket. This is the same approach as WestJet, serving both Scottish cities non-stop from Toronto in 2022.

Vueling from Paris Orly to…

Weekly flights

Start date

Six routes are unserved from Paris

Six of Vueling's 28 routes are unserved from Paris (CDG, Orly, or Beauvais): Asturias; Cardiff; Cork; Granada; Jerez; and Leipzig. However, they have all had non-stops in the past decade. For example, Leipzig saw Air France between 2006-2012 and Darwin Airlines from 2013-2015, according to data experts Cirium. Cork will again welcome Air France from March 2022.

In keeping with this 'six' theme, Vueling previously operated six of these 28 routes: Asturias; Bari; Birmingham; Bologna; Edinburgh; and Tangier. The northern Moroccan city of Tangier, 861 nautical miles away, was served in 2015 with two weekly flights. Other routes saw Vueling on a one-off or limited basis, such as Cardiff for rugby reasons.

Vueling from Paris Orly routes
Notice that most of these routes are of similar lengths. Indeed, almost all of the 28 routes are within the one to two-hour sweet spot for low-cost carriers to help increase sectors per day, passengers per day, and overall productivity. Image: GCMap.

Stay aware: Sign up for my weekly new routes newsletter.

Only six routes will face direct competition

In another of the 'six' trends, six airports – Agadir, Bari, Dublin, Malta, Stockholm Arlanda, and Tangier – will have direct competition from Orly in November. Based on the first week of that month, Vueling will be up against the following. However, Air Malta ends that week, while Transavia ends Stockholm on November 14th. Both developments motivated Vueling to enter.

  1. Agadir: Transavia France (15-weekly), Royal Air Maroc (seven), TUI fly (three)
  2. Bari: Transavia France (twice-weekly)
  3. Dublin: Transavia France (nine-weekly)
  4. Malta: Air Malta (twice-weekly)
  5. Stockholm Arlanda: (three-weekly)
  6. Tangier: Royal Air Maroc (four-weekly) and Transavia France (three-weekly)
Vueling Paris Orly
Vueling first operated from Orly, where this photo was taken, in July 2009. Between October 2006 and June 2009, it was served by Clickair, which merged with Vueling. The best year thus far was 2018, when Vueling had 3.6 million seats at Orly. Photo: Peter Bakema via Flickr.

Vueling will also have heavy head-to-head competition from other Paris airports, although each airport has its own core catchment area. Milan Bergamo stands out. easyJet launched Paris CDG to Bergamo in September, joining Ryanair from Beauvais. Now Vueling will operate from Orly.

What are your thoughts about this development? Let us know in the comments.