Volaris informations and photos

Volaris, legally Concesionaria Vuela Compañía de Aviación, S.A.B. de C.V., is a Mexican low-cost airline based in Santa Fe, Álvaro Obregón, Mexico City with its hubs in Guadalajara, San Salvador, Mexico City, and Tijuana, and focus cities in Cancún, León, and Monterrey. It is the country's second largest airline after Aeroméxico and serves domestic and international destinations within the Americas. It is the leading airline in the Mexican domestic airline market, with a market share of over 28% of domestic traffic.

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. The idea for the airline was formed from the proposed "Vuelamex" project. Major initial shareholders of the company were Grupo Televisa (the world's biggest Spanish-language media conglomerate), Inbursa (an insurance company owned by multi-billionaire Carlos Slim), TACA Airlines and the Discovery Americas Fund. Each of these partners invested 25% of the initial cost of activities, or 100 million USD. In July 2010, it was announced that Televisa and Inbursa had sold their stake in Volaris leaving the ownership of Volaris as follows: TACA Airlines with Roberto and Maria Cristina Kriete (50%), Investment fund Discovery Americas (over 25%) and Indigo Partners: Fund led by former America West CEO Bill Franke.

Ticket sales started on January 12, 2006, and, following the delivery of the airline's first aircraft, the first (non-commercial) flight was operated in February 2006. Scheduled revenue flights were launched on March 13, 2006, with the inaugural flight having been operated from Toluca to Tijuana.

Initially, the airline could not fly to Mexico City because of it being a congested and expensive airport. The airline got his first slot in Mexico city airport after corruption war against a weak small family business airline called Aerocalifornia and when this family business succumbed Volaris took over several slots and later took some other slots that had been owned by now-defunct Mexicana and its subsidiaries MexicanaClick and MexicanaLink, establishing service in September 2010. In March 2011, it announced that its hub in Toluca would move to Guadalajara.

On June 5, 2012, the airline launched a frequent flyer program called VClub. It is the membership program that provides special fares, offers, last minute travel deals and other perks. Customers can save up to 40% using the VClub membership. On June 6, 2012, PayPal became a payment alternative for the airline, enabling customers to purchase tickets directly from the airline's website. On September 17, 2012, Volaris announced a codeshare partnership with a German airline, Condor. Passengers of Condor are able to fly to more international destinations.

On March 13, 2013, the airline celebrated its seventh anniversary, offering passengers 70% off all flights, it has done this every year since then. Volaris announced the creation of a subsidiary, Volaris Costa Rica, in March 2016. The subsidiary, based at Juan Santamaría International Airport in the Costa Rican capital of San José, started operations in November 2016.

In November 2008, Volaris announced a codeshare agreement with U.S.-based low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines.

In April 2009, Volaris announced the start of U.S.-bound flights out of Toluca and Guadalajara (initially to Los Angeles and Oakland) to feed into the hubs of Southwest Airlines. Later on, U.S. flights were also offered from Zacatecas and Morelia, with Monterrey-Los Angeles and Fresno in planning.

On December 13, 2010, Volaris started services between Chicago/Midway and Guadalajara. It was Volaris' fourth international destination, first international service to a secondary airport and the longest route in Volaris' history. After Mexicana de Aviación's shutdown, Volaris took over many of Mexicana's international destinations and flights from its focus city, Guadalajara.

On February 25, 2011, it was announced that Volaris would begin service to Fresno on April 14, 2011. Fresno was Volaris' first US destination where it did not partner with Southwest Airlines. The airline began using Guadalajara International Airport as an American gateway hub in late 2011.

Volaris sought permission to fly between Dallas/Fort Worth and Mexico City, along with a number of other U.S.-Mexico routes. Volaris submitted the request on February 3, 2011 and the U.S. Department of Transportation granted approval on February 11. However, Volaris did not launch the service until over four years later, on April 29, 2015, when it began flights between Dallas/Fort Worth and Guadalajara.

Volaris received approval to fly to San Diego International Airport on July 12, 2012. Volaris then began non-stop flights between Orlando and Guadalajara on July 14, 2012.

Volaris started service between Sacramento and Guadalajara on November 15, 2012.
Volaris began flights between Denver and Mexico City on December 8, 2012.

On February 22, 2013, Volaris and Southwest stopped codesharing. Southwest decided to focus more on the Mexican market with AirTran Airways, instead of codesharing with Volaris.

Volaris began flights between Phoenix and Guadalajara on October 19, 2013.

Volaris began flying to its first destination in Texas, San Antonio, from Guadalajara on December 14, 2013. Volaris also started its new route from Mexico City to San Antonio on September 15, 2017.

Volaris began non-stop flights between Chicago/O'Hare and Mexico City on December 17, 2013. This replaced Volaris' Chicago/Midway-Mexico City flights.

Volaris began flights between Guadalajara and Ontario, California, a reliever airport in the Greater Los Angeles Area, on April 12, 2014.

Volaris applied to fly Mexicana's former Portland to Guadalajara route. The application was granted and service to Portland began on October 6, 2014. Volaris has since taken over Mexicana's former Portland to Morelia route, scheduled to start in 2021.

Volaris began serving its second destination in Florida, Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport, from Mexico City on December 1, 2014, and then from Guadalajara on December 4, 2014. The airline later ceased flying to Fort Lauderdale and replaced the route with non-stop flights to Miami from Mexico City and Guadalajara.

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