Early years Vueling was established on 10 February 2004 and commenced operations on 1 July 2004 with a flight between
Barcelona and
Ibiza. The initial fleet consisted of two
Airbus A320 aircraft, based in Barcelona serving
Brussels,
Ibiza,
Palma de Mallorca and
Paris-CDG. The name Vueling was formed by combining the
Spanish word
vuelo (flight) with the
English gerund suffix
-ing. Initially, major shareholders of Vueling were
Apax Partners (40%), Inversiones Hemisferio (
Grupo Planeta) (30%), Vueling's management team (23%) and V.A. Investor (
JetBlue Airways) (7%). During its nascent stages, the company's general manager was Lázaro Ros, while Carlos Muñoz was CEO. In November 2007, Vueling appointed managing director of
Spanair Lars Nygaard as CEO to replace Carlos Muñoz, who remained a member of the board of directors.
Madrid was added as the airline's second base in 2005, followed by its first base outside Spain at Paris CDG in 2007.
Seville followed in December 2009.
Financial concerns and management re-shuffle In 2007, Apax Partners sold its then-21% stake in the carrier in June of that year, followed by two profit warnings issued in August and October. Two company directors and the chairman resigned shortly before the second profit warning, citing differences over commercial strategy. Shares in the company were also temporarily suspended. This led to
Barbara Cassani, former Chief Executive of UK low-cost airline
Go, joining Vueling as chairman of the board in September 2007. The airline then embarked on a restructuring exercise and posted its first profit in mid 2009.
Vueling and Clickair merger In June 2008, Vueling and rival Spanish low-cost airline
Clickair announced their intention to merge. The merger was designed to create a carrier better able to compete in the competitive Spanish airline market and mitigate high fuel costs with Iberia as the main industrial partner. While the new company would trade under the Vueling name, Clickair's Alex Cruz was named as chief executive. The deal was subject to scrutiny and approval by European competition regulators, who were concerned that the merged airline would have a significant competitive advantage on around 19 routes. The regulators demanded the release of slots at Barcelona and other European airports as a condition of the merger. On 15 July 2009, the merger of Vueling and
Clickair was completed. to almost 50 destinations.
Co-operation with MTV in
MTV Livery at
Paris-CDG, France (2008) In 2009, Vueling, for the second year running, cooperated with
MTV during the summer season. Two of Vueling's A320 aircraft (EC-KDG and EC-KDH) were re-painted into MTV liveries with some MTV styling on-board too. The designs of both liveries were created by
Custo Dalmau and both liveries were removed at the end of 2009. In the summer season of 2010, EC-KDG followed in December 2010 by the announcement of a new base in
Amsterdam, also to open during April 2011. The Toulouse base opened on 23 April 2011, but has since closed. In January 2011, further expansion was announced with Vueling adding a further nine aircraft to its fleet, including
Airbus A319 aircraft. Six Airbus A320s were delivered between April and June 2011, whilst the remaining two A320s were delivered by the end of 2011. On 21 March 2012, it was announced by CEO Alex Cruz that
Rome would be added as a new base. The base launched on 25 March 2012 with one aircraft based there: the airline has since expanded at Rome with numerous new destinations. On 5 December 2012, Vueling announced the opening of a new base of operations in
Florence: the carrier is to base one aircraft there and serve four new European destinations. Ten months later, on 25 October 2013, Vueling launched
Florence-
Catania, its first domestic route in Italy. Since November 2013, the airline has continued to expand from its
hub at Barcelona. On 6 November 2013, Vueling announced a new base with one aircraft in
Brussels, with seven new destinations from May 2014, in addition to the four previous routes from Brussels. Also in November 2013, Vueling announced an expansion of its base at
Rome-Fiumicino. From mid-2014, 8 aircraft would be based there, operating more than 30 routes. This expansion meant Rome-Fiumicino would become Vueling's secondary hub, after Barcelona. In 2014, Vueling opened routes to Warsaw and Cracow in Poland, both of which were canceled in 2020. During the first weekend of July 2016, Vueling had many delays and cancellations, which resulted in an investigation by the Spanish authorities. During the same month, Vueling cancelled all its flights to
Sheremetyevo International Airport,
Vilnius Airport and
Rabat–Salé Airport. Clients were able to get a refund or fly to the nearest airport where Vueling flew. In October 2016, Vueling shut down their bases in Brussels, Catania and
Palermo as part of restructuring measures. In March 2017, Vueling canceled its route from Barcelona to
Frankfurt Airport. On 29 December 2017, it was announced that IAG would acquire Austrian airline
Niki as a subsidiary for Vueling. However, Niki was later acquired by
Niki Lauda, the owner of
Laudamotion, with investment from
Ryanair. A few months after losing the bid for Niki, IAG instead established
Anisec Luftfahrt as a subsidiary of Vueling, operating as
LEVEL, using four former Niki aircraft that had not been purchased by rival
Lufthansa (and leased to
Lauda). In 2020, Vueling announced new routes linking
Paris, France to
Dubrovnik, Croatia and
Seville, Spain to
Marrakech, Morocco. Subsequently in December 2024, Vueling announced that the airline will launch flights between Florence and
Brussels in April 2025 using their Airbus A319 aircraft. On July 23, 2025, a group of 52 Jewish teenagers and their chaperone were removed from Vueling Airlines flight 8166 (Valencia-Paris Orly) before departure. The incident gave rise to a number of complaints that accused the airline of engaging in antisemitic behaviour. Officials from the French government requested an explanation from the airline, and several Jewish advocacy groups expressed their concerns. The
United States Department of State called for a complete investigation of the events. In an unsubstantiated statement,
Amichai Chikli, Israel's minister for
Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, claimed the Vueling crew had said "
Israel is a terrorist state", and attributed the incident to "
Hamas's campaign of lies". However, Vueling has consistently denied all allegations of antisemitism, arguing that it was the persistent and highly disruptive behavior of the group that ultimately led to their removal, as their actions constituted a serious threat to the aircraft's safety equipment. After several warnings from the crew were disregarded, the pilot ordered the group's forced disembarkation to guarantee the flight's safety.
Spain's Civil Guard, who assisted with the disembarkation, said that the passengers who were removed were French nationals, and that it was not aware of the group's religious affiliation. Following a comprehensive investigation of the incident, the
Spanish Aviation Safety and Security Agency later concluded that the airline had acted reasonably and in accordance with the official regulations, without any evidence of antisemitic motivations. ==Corporate affairs==