“The total number of passengers we expect to carry to and from Otopeni this year is 1.55 million, and 1.85 million to and from Romania,” the representatives of the airline said, adding the number of passengers to and from Timisoara to Otopeni and back is counted only once.
Ryanair is therefore headed fast for a position among the top three airlines in Romania, after having ranked fifth by market share last year. Ryanair carried 0.7 million passengers to and from Bucharest in 2015, the only Romanian airport it operated from. It announced plans to enter Craiova and Timisoara this year.
Market leader, low-cost carrier Wizz Air, served 4.5 million passengers on routes to and from Romania, while flag carrier Tarom served 2.4 million. Number three on the market, low-cost airline Blue Air carried about 2 million passengers. Ryanair is therefore quickly closing the gap to Blue Air, a company that has developed in full gear in the past few years and is trying to beat Tarom to second place.
Ryanair’s passenger numbers expectations come after a 135% rise in the number of people carried in the first half.
“Traffic increased by 160% in the first quarter compared with the year-ago period, while the number of customers carried to and from Romania in the first half rose by 135% compared with the first half of last year,” the officials of the Irish-held company said.
Ryanair currently flies only from Otopeni in Romania, but will introduce flights from Timisoara and Craiova in the second half and expects to serve about 300,000 passengers on those routes. Ryanair will be offering flights to Valencia from Craiova and flights to Bucharest and several other cities like Berlin, Brussels Charleroi, Dusseldorf Weeze, Frankfurt Hahn, London Standstead, Milan Bergamo from Timisoara.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)