- published: 13 Jun 2013
- views: 100234
Concesionaria Vuela Compañía de Aviación, S.A. de C.V., operating as Volaris, is a Mexican low-cost airline and the country's second largest airline after Aeroméxico, thus being a leading competitor in the Mexican domestic market, with a market share of around 13-14% of domestic traffic.
Volaris' headquarters are located in Santa Fe, Álvaro Obregón, Mexico City, and its operational base is located at the Lic. Adolfo López Mateos International Airport (TLC) in Toluca.
The pre-operations phase (founding of the legal entities and setting up of the required infrastructure) started in August 2005 under the name Vuela Airlines. Major initial shareholders of the company were Grupo Televisa (the world's biggest Spanish-language media conglomerate), Inbursa (an insurance company owned by billionaire Carlos Slim), TACA and the Discovery Americas Fund. Each of these partners invested 25% of the initial cost of activities, or 100 million USD. On July 2010, it was announced that Televisa and Inbursa had sold their stake in Volaris leaving the ownership of Volaris as follows: TACA with Roberto and Maria Cristina Kriete (50%), Investment fund Discovery Americas (over 25%) and Indigo Partners: Fund led by former America West CEO B. Franke. Ticket sale started on January 12, 2006, and the first (non-commercial) flight was operated in February 2006, following the delivery of the airline's first aircraft. Scheduled revenue flights were launched on March 13, 2006, with the inaugural flight having been operated from Toluca to Tijuana. The airline has been received well on a number of areas including fares, fleet, service and on time service. However, if a flight is delayed for more than 30 minutes, passengers are given free, transferable tickets for use on any destination on their next purchase. If check-in lasts more than 10 minutes after passing the waiting line, passengers are given a discount coupon for their next purchase.