“For us, Volotea, it’s over!”: faced with the surge in kerosene, the airline cancels a series of flights, which infuriates customers

Violently shaken by the surge in the price of kerosene, its main cost item, and by a debt of 250-300 million euros contracted during Covid, Volotea is suffering. The Spanish low-cost company, very present in France in particular with domestic flights and specialist in connections between medium-sized European cities, has decided to cancel flights from its winter program to keep its head above water, sometimes late, provoking the anger of its customers who must urgently look for alternatives. Regularly singled out for the lightness of its customer service, the company is now attracting the wrath of the UFC Que Choisir association which has collected testimonies from numerous customers in difficulty.

“For us, Volotea is over!”, explains a couple from Ille-et-Vilaine whose canceled Nantes-Naples flight was the prelude to their honeymoon. “Our trip will cost us twice as much and we will not be able to do everything we had planned,” they lament.

“I had to urgently reorganize my entire trip and incur unforeseen expenses,” annoys another customer who highlights an advance of 200 euros in additional costs and doubled transport time. Que Choisir denounces above all the lack of support from the company. Indeed, European regulations require the company that cancels a flight to offer ticket reimbursement or rerouting to its destination.

However, according to the association, Volotea does not respect the legal deadline of 7 days for reimbursement, citing "a high volume of requests". 30 days or 7 days to be refunded? After having indicated to its customers that they will have to wait "up to" 30 working days, the company contacted by Que Choisir now indicates that "ticket refunds are currently processed within seven days from the refund request made by the customer via Volotea's official channels".

Another complaint is that the company leaves customers to fend for themselves to find an alternative delivery solution. A customer indicates that Volotea refused to take responsibility for the solution found and advised him to buy the tickets himself and then request a refund via a form. “If you cannot find an alternative flight with us, you can book another means of transportation and then request a refund by sending the necessary documents […].

The request will be examined according to criteria of reasonableness." Criteria of "reasonableness" which raise questions, especially since customers would not obtain any response from the company. "Requests for reimbursement of costs incurred for alternative transport are examined on a case-by-case basis [...].

This assessment depends on each situation, we cannot confirm in advance whether a given expense will be reimbursed nor the amount likely to be covered," responds Volotea. According to data from the Cirium firm cited by l'Echo Touristique, more than 10% of its capacities for its winter program, between November and February, were eliminated. According to 20 Minutes, it is in Bordeaux that we observe the greatest number of cancellations, up to 35% on a year.

Machine-translated from French