Henri Coanda (Otopeni) Airport in Bucharest, the largest airport in the country, served 654,000 passengers flying on domestic routes in the first half, and such flights generated only 10% of the total traffic.
Flag carrier Tarom had the monopoly of domestic flights until 2017, when low-cost airlines Wizz Air, Blue Air and Ryanair launched their own.
Bucharest-Cluj is the domestic route with the highest traffic, 242,000 passengers in the first half, slightly down (1%) on the year-ago period. This is the route with most flights, 54 a week, operated by Tarom, Blue Air and Wizz Air.
Cluj-Napoca is the second most important city for the country’s economy by number of companies present there and has become a magnet for IT and outsourcing companies, as well as manufacturing businesses. Businesspeople choose to travel to this destination by plane, because it only takes on hour from Bucharest to get there. The road and railroad infrastructure connecting the two cities are in poor condition, so a trip takes five and ten hours respectively.
The route connecting Bucharest to the west of the country (Timisoara) is the second most popular domestic route, with 191,000 passengers in the first half, 11% more than in the year-ago period. The operators offering flights on this route are Tarom and Ryanair, 37 in all a week. Getting from Bucharest to Timisoara takes one hour by plane or ten hours by train and seven or eight hours by car.
Bucharest-Iasi is the third most popular route, with 100,000 to 150,000 passengers, according to CNAB officials. Traffic was down 7.9% in the first half. Tarom and Blue Air are offering flights on this route, 45 a week. The airport in Iasi is the country’s fourth largest after Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara and served 1.1 million passengers last year, 30% more than in 2016. Tarom and Blue Air connect Iasi to Bucharest and Blue Air connects it to Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara.
Bucharest-Oradea and Bucharest-Satu Mare served fewer than 50,000 passengers, but they saw the highest rises in traffic, 15% and 46%, according to Henri Coanda Airport officials. Tarom and Blue Air operate flights to Oradea, while only Tarom is offering flights to Satu Mare.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)