Riga (Latvia), Moscow (Russia), Stockholm (Sweden), Malmo (Sweden), Doncaster Sheffield (Great Britain), Malta are the new destinations air transporters have included on the flights’ map this year.
Tarom opened the summer season (April is the first month of the summer schedule in aviation) with flights on the Bucharest-Moscow and Iasi-Tel Aviv routes and in June is set to launch another two flights on the Bucharest-Stockholm and Iasi-Milan routes. The company is also likely to launch flights to Beijing from Bucharest.
“Beside the four new routes, Tarom also increased the number of flights per week for the following destinations: Geneva (3 flights/week), Dublin (6/week), Prague (6/week), Amsterdam (14/week), Chisinau (17/week), Beirut (3/week) and Amman (3 flights/week),” according to the company’s officials.
Additionally, the national airline sealed partnerships for charter flights in summer from Bucharest to Antalya and Bodrum, Heraklion, Chania, Rhodes, Zakintos, Kos, Mikonos, Santorini, Skiathos, Aktios, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife south and from Cluj to Skiathos and Chania.
Starting June, Air Baltic, Latvia’s airline, with EUR255 million in revenue, will introduce flights on the Bucharest-Riga route, with prices for a return trip starting from EUR180, according to data posted on the company’s website. At present, no other company operates flights on this destination.
Wizz Air low-cost airline also bets on new destinations and is to introduce four new flights from Bucharest starting July, to Doncaster Sheffield, Malaga (Spain), Malmo (Sweden) and Malta and a flight from Cluj-Napoca to Basel Mulhouse Freiburg (France). The airline bought a new Airbus A320 aicraft. Wizz Ai, which operates from five Romanian airports, in 2013 shipped 3.2 million passengers from and to Romania, up 18% on the year.
In its turn, Blue Air banks as well on a new destination this summer, namely Koln, Germany, starting June 16, with a frequency of three flights per week. For 2014, the company expects the same number of passengers as in 2013, 1.35 million persons.
Ryanair also entered Otopeni airport with new flights. Starting this month, it will operate flights on the Bucharest-London and Bucharest-Dublin routes.
Flights have also been launched toward Romanian cities. Flights will be operated, for the first time, toward Tulcea, starting May 15, from Bucharest, after Ten Airways owned by businessman Ovidiu Tender, decided to bet on this market. Moreover, the airline will also fly on the Bucharest-Timisoara route and toward destinations of Italy, Germany and Turkey under the Fly Romania brand.
The only company that gave up all the flights in Romania is Carpatair, which operated on Bucharest-Timisoara route.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)