OUR VOLOTEA
SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAMME
The environmental aspects of our activities
Our commitment to sustainability
Aviation is a powerful driving force for bringing people and markets together. This connection means more social interaction, stronger economies and growth opportunities created across the world. As aviation expands, the benefits of a more connected and prosperous society spread further and wider. However, aviation does not have a short-term solution for completely eliminating emissions, despite still being committed to investing and taking steps forwards in progressively decarbonising.
Volotea was founded over a decade ago and we have always been mindful of these challenges. Now that we are big enough to make a real difference, we are stepping up our efforts to achieve our goal of reducing emissions and building a more sustainable future more quickly.
Our promise
Operate direct flights between small- and medium-sized cities in Europe, connecting previously unconnected or underserviced locations. This was our first step to help to reduce our customers’ travel impact. By helping them to avoid taking connecting flights, we have dramatically cut their ecological footprint.
Our vision
It is now time to do more. Truth be told, if we are really going to reduce CO₂ emissions, it has to be a joint effort between our customers, our business partners and us. With this in mind, we have just published our first CO₂ emissions reduction plan, and we would like to set out how we see it working.
Our future
Eliminate 100% of our CO₂ emissions. In order to achieve this, we are relying on factors which are still being worked out across the industry, such as sustainable aviation fuels, technological improvements and our own ability to continually replace our fleets with more efficient aircraft.
OUR SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAMME VERIFIED BY EQA
We are continuing to progress towards decarbonised aviation, a key objective for the future of an essential industry for economic and social development. EQA has verified our environmental statements as part of our Voloterra program, reinforcing our commitment to our reduction targets and transparency.
The five pillars underpinning Voloterra
An efficient connectivity model
Volotea connects more than 100 cities across Europe with direct flights, which, according to our study, reduces CO₂ emissions by up to 56% compared to connecting flights.
We ensure that our scheduled flights are as full as possible and have registered an average occupancy rate of over 90% since 2018. In 2024, 91% of the seats were booked on our regular flights.
Out of our more than 400 routes, in 2025, none could be covered by train in less than 3 hours. More than 93% of Volotea flights cannot be covered by train in less than 6 hours.
Volotea is at the forefront of connecting European islands. In summer 2025 (from June to September), 53% of our regular flights were connections with islands, such as Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily and Mallorca.
Reducing CO₂ emissions per passenger-kilometre
In 2021, we completed the transition of our fleet from Boeing 717 aircraft and upgraded to more sustainable and efficient Airbus 319 and 320 models, totalling over 40 aircraft.
Since we first took to the skies in 2012, we have launched more than 50 initiatives to reduce the fuel consumption of our aircraft. By the end of 2024, these initiatives have helped to reduce CO₂ emissions related to fuel burn per passenger-kilometre (RPK) by 51% (vs 2012), managing to achieve our objective of reducing emissions by 50% five years early.
We are stepping up our commitment by setting a new objective of reducing direct CO₂ emissions per RPK by between 55% and 60% by 2030 (compared to 2012).
Increase in the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)
Volotea collaborates with manufacturers and the industry in order to support the development of SAF, in order to produce it more quickly and mainstream its use.
According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), SAF has the greatest potential to reduce CO₂ emissions from international aviation (1) in the short and medium term. The SAF that we use in our aircraft has around 90% fewer CO₂ emissions over its life cycle than the current fossil-based jet fuel.
In 2024, we used 1.3 million litres of SAF on our flights, which accounts for 0.37% of all of our fuel burn, (the airline industry average for 2024 is 0.3% of total jet fuel demand (2)).
In addition, we operated Airbus’ internal Hamburg-Toulouse shuttle with a 21% SAF blend on average.
Since 2022, we have used more than 2.4 million litres of SAF on our flights. (0.48 million litres in 2022, 0.65 million litres in 2023 and 1.28 million litres in 2024).
We collaborate with a number of providers to promote the development of SAF, with agreements in place with Moeve (formerly CEPSA), Repsol, Total and Enilive in Italy.
(1) www.icao.int/environmental-protection/pages/SAF.aspx
(2) According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) https://www.iata.org/en/iata-repository/pressroom/fact-sheets/fact-sheet---alternative-fuels/?ref=wwf_fgn.
Innovation and development
We are actively involved in industry forums and associations aiming to develop new technologies for operating with zero emissions.
In December 2022, we became investors in Dovetail Electric Aviation, a company making major strides toward developing the first commercial electric aircraft. In addition, in 2025, Volotea has become the first European airline to collaborate with 280 Earth, leaders in direct air-capture technology developed at Google X.
Transparency and verification
This marks the fourth consecutive year that Voloterra has passed an external audit, confirming the programme's measurable progress, our commitment to driving a more sustainable future in aviation, and Voloterra’s high standards, which are aligned with ISO 14064-1:2019 specifications, an international standard for verifying greenhouse gas emissions.
Each year, we produce our Annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report. This document, which constitutes our Non-Financial Information Statement, embodies our commitment to making an impact beyond our income statement. All of our reports have been verified by an independent provider, in accordance with Spanish Law 11/2018 on non-financial information and diversity.
Take a look at these reports at the following links: VOLOTEA | Corporate Social Responsibility