The reason for its arrival is the belief that there is a market for flights from secondary Italian airports to Romania and the other way round, said Davide Strinna, country manager of Air Vallee for Romania.
The company plans to open its own base of operations in Romania, using the airports in Bucharest (Otopeni), Iasi and Constanta (NE and SE of the country). Air Vallee will operate two weekly flights on the Bucharest-Parma route and three on the Iasi-Turin route. Tickets can already be booked on the company’s website.
Air Vallee is a low-cost air carrier established in 1987 with Parma as its base. It also operates from other cities of its home country: Turin, Rimini, Pescara and Catania.
The Italian airline arrives in Romania after a number of other airlines tried their luck on this market and failed with few exceptions. My Air and Sky Europe were the first to leave because of the crisis and easyJet announced it would leave, as well, this year.
On the other hand, Hungary’s Wizz Air posted growth despite the crisis. Other low-cost airlines are GermanWings, which only operates flights to Germany and Ryanair, which only offers flights from Constanta.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)