easyJet has opened its 27th base in Europe at Venice Marco Polo Airport. The decision is part of a strengthening of the airline’s Italian strategy which, alongside the new base in Venice, sees expansion at Milan Malpensa and Naples during 2016.
Carolyn McCall, CEO of easyJet and Frances Ouseley, easyJet’s Italy Director, celebrated during a ceremony attended by the President of Marco Polo Airport, Enrico Marchi.
The airline unveiled an aircraft with a special livery featuring one of Venice’s iconic gondolas that will help to promote the city across the 32 countries easyJet flies to. To celebrate the new base, easyJet also turned the popular and spectacular Venice’s Carnival celebrations orange on Sunday 31 January where the traditional ‘flight of the angel’ culminated on an easyJet runway on San Marco Square.
Speaking from Venice, easyJet CEO Carolyn McCall, said: "I am delighted to be opening our new base in Venice today alongside Mr. Enrico Marchi. We started our operation here in 1998, and since then have invested greatly in Venice carrying over 12 million passengers and becoming the largest airline by far with a current market share of 24%.
"And today we are moving this investment further with the launch of the new base we are increasing capacity by 35% to 2.4 million seats, there will be 150 pilots and cabin crew based in Venice, together with a dedicated management team, to operate four A319 Airbus aircraft”
“In Italy over the course of 2016 easyJet plans to carry over 17 million passengers and employ more than 1100 pilots, cabin crew and other staff, providing the country’s best European network operating on over 180 routes from 17 Italian airports.
“With the opening of the new base in Venice and our expansion in Milan and Naples easyJet will be providing Italian customers and companies with better choices to travel across our leading network.”
With the investment in the new base, the airline has increased the number of weekly flights by up to 45% providing consumers a choice of an average of 50 daily flights - with popular business and leisure destinations such as London and Paris connected with up to 6 flights a day, Naples with 4 daily flights and Berlin with 2. It also introduced as many as 10 new destinations widening the choice for passengers departing from Venice Marco Polo Airport that can now choose from 25 destinations, making Venice even better connected to the rest of Europe.