Moving the low-cost flights might boost passenger traffic by 45%-47% this year if the number of flights and load factor remain the same as last year. The five million passengers coming or going on regular airline flights on Otopeni Airport, as shown by last year’s traffic data, will be joined by 2.4 million passengers that low cost airlines Wizz Air and Blue Air carry annually. This is the traffic figure registered on the Bucharest Aurel Vlaicu (Baneasa) Airport in 2011 and may fluctuate depending on the demand for plane tickets this year.
There are no data about the exact number of flights the airlines will operate in this year’s summer schedule, but last year data show that the number of aircraft movements (takeoffs and landings) stood at 74,500 on the Otopeni Airport and at 26,000 on the Baneasa Airport, according to the Bucharest Airports National Company. Which means that 102 planes took off and landed on the largest airport in the country every day on the average last year, and 71 planes took off and landed on Baneasa.
The move of low-cost flights to Otopeni had been announced as early as last year, when former Transport Minister Anca Boagiu said it was needed in order to turn Baneasa into a city airport for VIP flights. Both Blue Air and Wizz Air announced they would operate off the Otopeni Airport as of March 25.
Moreover, Wizz Air added a few destinations from Otopeni: Memmingen (southern German between Stuttgart and Munich, twice a week), Verona (Italy), Palma de Mallorca (Spain). The company will operate four flights per day to Budapest. The ticket prices will go up by 4%, the officials of the Hungarian company said, as a result of the higher taxes generated by the move. Blue Air officials said the price of tickets would remain unchanged.
The relocation of flights to Otopeni Airport will create opportunities for the coffee shops, bars and restaurants in the airport, as well as for the hotels around it and even the taxi drivers who might get more requests for customers going to or coming from Otopeni.
“The area around the Otopeni Airport will turn into an even more powerful commercial hub because of the increase of traffic as a result of the low-cost (flights) relocation,” said Valentin Iordache, spokesman for the airport.
Dragos Petrescu, owner of restaurant chain City Grill, which operates City Cafe coffee shop inside the airport, says he expects revenue to increase by 60% once the low-cost flights have been moved to Otopeni.
A restaurant may make twice as much on the Otopeni Airport than a restaurant in the city as prices there are 50% to 100% higher.
The operators of the hotels around the airport expect bookings to increase. “The number of reservations will definitely increase but I couldn’t estimate by how much yet. It remains to be seen,” said Ionut Negoita, who owns Rin Express and Rin Airport close to the airport. The two three and four-star hotels total 408 rooms and the average occupancy rate stood at 40% last year, Negoita said.
Taxi drivers, too, expect to make more money because of the increase in the number of passengers on the Otopeni Airport, which is farther from Bucharest than Baneasa and therefore taxi rides cost more.
The Bucharest Airports National Company will open the second international departures terminal on the Otopeni airport in July. The terminal takes up 19,600 square metres and the investment amounts to EUR62 million. This new terminal will boost the capacity of the airport from 7 or 8 million passengers to almost 10-11 million, according to the data provided by Valentin Iordache. The retail space inside the Otopeni Airport is rented in full.
(English version by Loredana Frățilă-Cristescu)