“In the first four months of this year the company’s revenues rose by 10% on average in Central and Eastern Europe. In Romania we grew 20% year-on-year, i.e. double as much as in Eastern Europe,” he said.
Emil Delibashev says demand for airplane tickets is on the rise because companies send their employees to face-to-face meetings rather than hold videonferences, as they used to in 2009 and 2010, when they had cut their travel budgets.
British Airways’ revenues in Romania amounted to EUR15 million last year, according to ZF estimates. The head of the company says he expects the growth rate of the first four months to be maintained until the end of the year.
Bulgaria is ahead
The airline operator recorded its second-largest growth rate in the Balkans in Romania, behind Bulgaria’s 60% rate. This is the first time that the Romanian business, with two daily flights to London, is left behind in terms of growth rate by the Bulgarian business, with only one daily flight from Sofia to London. This can be explained by the new policy implemented in Bulgaria, which entails lower, differentiated fees.
“The model we applied in Bulgaria and which proved successful will be exported to Romania, as well. We responded to demand by making prices more attractive and this will happen in Romania, too.”
80% occupancy rate in the summer
Competition on the Bucharest-London route has intensified after state-run airline Tarom introduced its second daily flight on this route in March this year.
According to data on the Tarom website, the price of a Bucharest-London return ticket at British Airways starts from EUR69 (airport taxes excluded) and can reach up to EUR2,000 for business class tickets (airport taxes excluded), but within this interval there are a total of 28 different price levels, according to the head of British Airways.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)