Unos vuelan, otros Vueling gets top votes at Vueling’s aircraft’s name contest

Wednesday 12th August, 2009

Vueling Airlines, the new-generation airline, closed its aircraft naming contest on Sunday, one minute before midnight. Over 45,000 followers voted to one of the 50 finalist ideas.

On counting the votes, «Unos vuelan, otros Vueling» (literally, «Some fly, others Vueling»), whose author is Lluís Nieto, turned out to be the name with the highest score—16,767. Other names in the top five includes Ready, Steady Vueling and I want to Vueling. The winners—two Spaniards, one Dutchman, a Portuguese and a Frenchwoman—reflect the cultural diversity amongst Vueling’s followers.

The creator of the best idea will be awarded with a visit to the hangar (in either the Netherlands, the UK or Spain, dependent on the tender’s outcome) where the clickair livery will be transformed into a Vueling one. He or she will be able to see, first hand, the aircraft being painted with its new name. On top of that, the winner will get five roundtrips for two people (with two overnights included in every trip) to any Vueling destination.

The four remaining winners will get a free return trip for two to any Vueling destination.

Over 65,000 names submitted
Vueling fans were invited to name five of the Barcelona-based company’s 18 incoming Airbus A320s. These aircraft joined the new Vueling fleet following the ratification of its merger with clickair on July 15th, so creating a 35-strong A320 fleet.

In just 6 days, Vueling received over 65,000 name suggestions. A list of 50 finalists was subsequently drawn. Vueling followers have been able to vote for their favourite name at vueling.com/nameaviones from August 4th to 9th.
Voters had also the chance to interact between themselves via Vueling’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. Over 2,000 of them posted online opinions.

Right from its start five years ago Vueling has turned to its passengers and employees every time it has looked for an idea to name a new aircraft. Fleet names include: «Vueldone», «Be Vueling my friend», «No Vueling, no party» or «Absolute Vueling» [see appendix for a complete list]. In addition, five aircraft were named after Vueling’s one-, two-, five- and ten-millionth passengers.

Aircraft painting
The process of re-painting clickair’s 18-strong A320 fleet will span from mid-September to mid-November, as the aircraft stop for their scheduled checks. It is the only pending step in the process of rolling out the Vueling brand to the entire clickair fleet, whose interiors have already been 100% fitted in Vueling fashion since early July.

What’s Vueling
Vueling, the Spanish new-generation airline, took to the skies on July 1st, 2004 with the aim of offering excellent service at very competitive prices. Vueling, which has carried over 21 million passengers since its inaugural flight, culminated its merger with clickair on July 15th.

Vueling flies a 35-strong all-Airbus A320 fleet, operating 92 routes in 45 main airports across 17 countries in Europe and North of Africa. In the UK, Vueling operates out of London Heathrow to Bilbao, Seville, Vigo and La Coruna.