Volotea, the Sardinian "slap" of low cost

“Burger King's business model was broken. But it was like sex in the 1950s. Everyone knew it, but nobody talked about it ». Greg Brenneman is not a traditional businessman, in the face of crises, he knows how to break the delay and change course. At the end of the 90s he was president and chief operating officer of Continental Airlines, one of the largest American airlines, a few years later, with the merger with United Airlines, he left the skies to land in the most earthly challenge of the time, to save safe. catastrophe one of the largest food chains in the world. Burger King is on the verge of collapse, the markets overlap with those of the most direct competition. He does not think twice and plans the landing in the impossible: China.

Burger King's lesson

He, president and CEO of Burger King, inaugurating his first fast-food restaurant in mainland China, in the heart of Shanghai, one of 11,000 restaurants in 65 countries around the world, comments: «It seems that a couple of our competitors have arrived. here before us, but we are here to stay ». For him, since then, "making mistakes is fundamental, to avoid making the same mistake later on". He says it and repeats it like a mantra, from the United States to Castrillón, in the Principality of Asturias, in the extreme Spain on the ocean side. Here, nine hundred kilometers away from Barcelona, is the registered office of Volotea, the low cost company that since yesterday has held the scepter of territorial continuity to and from Sardinia. He avoided repeating the mistake of the missing identity card, for better security he doubled the discounts and, in the end, he won.

Spaniards and Americans

Many call it Spanish, in reality the main shareholder is him, Greg Brenneman, the American business-man now head of CCMP Capital, a private equity investment company, basically an investment bank with the task of multiplying the value of the shares. At his side are the investment professionals, those who have separated from JP Morgan Partners, one of the most impressive American financial realities. It is he, the man who ruled one of the most important airlines in the world and challenged the East to sell burgers and chips, who has bet money and ideas in the project of two other visionaries of the skies: Carlos Muñoz and Lázaro Ros. It is they who, after having created and listed Vueling on the stock exchange, have decided to collect the "mistakes" of a life in the skies to give birth to their new high-altitude challenge: Volotea. First headquarters in Barcelona, then, after the Catalan independence revolution, forced to move a thousand kilometers away, passing from the Mediterranean to the ocean front, in order to safeguard relations with European aeronautical rules. From number 56 of Travessera de Gracia in Barcelona, still the administrative headquarters, to the legal one located in the Spanish Principality of Asturias, in the Santiago del Monte airport. It is Carlos Muñoz, managing director and Lázaro Ros, general manager who convince the American tycoon of their project. In reality, the three meet ideally, with mistakes and experience behind them: a decisive mix.

35 million passengers

They love to break the mold, pursue innovative and unexplored paths, target unthinkable markets. The project of the new company, daring and full of risks, becomes disruptive, so much so that in less than 8 years the Iberian-American low cost company can handle 35 million passengers. A goal achieved with an approach from the rear, never with a direct confrontation with the main competitors. Carlo Muñoz's philosophy is musical: «We prefer classical music to rock and roll, it is much more harmonious». The goal is to connect suburbs, small towns, apparently secluded, but then extraordinarily competitive. The symphony, however, suddenly changes when the wings of the Airbus fly over the Nuraghi Island. The score staged in Sardinia is an unprecedented change of pace for a low cost. From a flash of summer to Vivaldi's four seasons. And Muñoz and Ros have decided that, in the land of mastic and myrtle, they want to play all four, without supporting actors and competitors. A risk as risky as it is daring, for an impressive change of strategy for a company that has made "low cost" its fundamental rule. Behind the assault on what was once Alitalia's Sardinian safe, however, there is no improvisation. If low cost airlines know how to make a precise calculation, it is precisely that of costs. A whole different story compared to the state bandwagon used to squandering resources and billions, so much paid by Rome and the Sardinian Region. Alitalia before and after Ita have always participated in the tenders for the territorial continuity of Sardinia with the conviction of being able to do good and bad weather, without competitors. The conviction for the state company has always been to dictate the rules and costs of that public service, funded only according to the earnings of the Rome company. The latest tax, suffered without dignity by the regional institutions, was the cancellation of the single tariff, which remained in force for nine months a year, for nine years. A “single rate for residents and non-residents” which gave Sardinia the non-negotiable recognition of a Region on a par with the others, Italian and European.

Island tax

In practice, now, however, non-resident citizens, including the many emigrants, who have always been children of Sardinia, will be charged a real "island tax" to come to the island, making them pay triple or quadruple the resident rate. . The only case in Europe where the right to mobility is canceled, introducing a discrimination that will weigh like a boulder on the island's economy. The outcome will be the same as that of the tax introduced in 2006 on boats: the yachts all ended up in Corsica, with many thanks from France. For Volotea, therefore, it was a game to disavow Alitalia and Ita, exposing the same proposal from the Sardinian Region which, evidently, had not done well the calculations of the cost of the hour flown, at the basis of the public contribution.

Wrong accounts

If a low cost company has beaten the field with a drop of 20% and then even 40%, doubling the value of the initial "discount", it is self-evident that the accounts were wrong. And to paraphrase the hamburger crack and sex in the 1950s: everyone knew about the money given away but no one talked about it. After all, it did not take a nuclear physicist to understand that the calculations of the same Region were projected to the stars.The mess of the Sardinian race, with all the glaring failures, of the ways and times, and the ignoble end of Alitalia's continuity, has However, an unprecedented front has opened, that of low cost in the management of “protected” connections between Sardinia and the continent. It is not known whether the Region will have the ability to regain the right to the single rate in the next definitive tender, the example of these months does not prove for the best, but certainly, if Volotea has been able to dare, other low-cost airlines will be able to do so too. cost, opening up important competitive scenarios for the future.

Rules to be respected

Finally, some warnings: Volotea will have to guarantee the contractual conditions of territorial continuity, which are not those of a low cost one. Prices will not fluctuate according to the hours and flows of supply and demand, luggage will be allowed as before, there will be no delays or cancellations of flights. We are in the field of public service and deficiencies cannot be allowed. For the Spanish-American low cost it is a significant bet, wasting this opportunity would be nefarious.

Four Seasons

Last note: the aircraft supplied to the company are of the same model as those of Alitalia, perhaps younger in age, all Airbus 319/320. Aircraft used little or nothing in winter and autumn, due to the company's old seasonal strategy. There will now be four seasons for Volotea. We change music, hoping that the score of Sardinia's inviolable right to an efficient and quality service is respected, on a par with other Italian and European citizens, without discrimination.