“We carried 3.88 million passengers in the first nine months of the year, compared with 2.6 million the same time last year,” Blue Air officials told ZF.
The Romanian-held budget airline ensured traffic growth with the introduction of more than 30 new routes and of new flights on the existing routes. Blue Air had the fastest-paced expansion this year, adding new foreign and domestic destinations. It also strengthened operations on its bases in Bucharest, Bacau, Iasi, Constanta and Cluj-Napoca and abroad in Larnaca, Turin and Liverpool.
The airline connected Cluj-Napoca to London, Larnaca, Nice and Hamburg, as well as the Constanta airport to Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara, Paris and Rome. It also introduced to new flights to Berlin and Valencia from Iasi and to Turin from Oradea.
Moreover, it expanded its fleet by signing an agreement for Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, an over $600 million deal, the biggest involving a local airline.
Blue Air ended last year with EUR300 million revenue and expects EUR400 million revenue this year. Its officials said they expected traffic to reach 5.5 million passengers.
Its main rival, Wizz Air, has yet to reveal nine-month traffic figures, but said traffic was up 37% to 3.3 million people in the first half. Therefore Blue Air beat Wizz Air by growth rate. However, Wizz Air expects to reach 7 million passengers this year.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)