A rise in the number of flights and the emergence of new regular airlines has boosted the Romanian air travel industry by 21% in the first seven months of the year, to 213 million euros, according to IATA Romania (International Air Transport Association).
"In 2007, several new companies such as Cyprus Airways, Singapore Airlines and Air Mauritius entered the Romanian market, and will soon be joined by Malaysian Airlines and Air Baltic. Of these, only Cyprus Airways operates flights from Bucharest," said Anca Apahidean, country manager of IATA Romania. IATA keeps track of the value of sales using a BSP (Billing Settlement Plan) system, through which over 80% of the airline ticket sales are made.
There are 27 IATA members currently operating in Romania, as well as 45 airlines that use the BSP system.
"There are airlines using the BSP Romania system, which, although they do not operate flights here, allow tickets to be sold through IATA accredited agencies," specified Apahidean. The number of airlines interested in entering the Romanian market is constantly growing, by seven IATA airlines per year on average.
Sales registered for the first seven months of the year remain in line with estimates, with the volume of sales forecast for this year standing at over 360m euros airlines (according to the IATA) against 305m euros in 2006. The leading companies on the air travel market are TAROM, Carpatair, Air France, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Lufthansa, Malev, KLM and Czech Airlines, which accounted for 82.6% of sales in the first seven months of the year.
Most of the top ten companies on the market registered over 20% increases in the first part of the year, both in terms passenger numbers and in terms of revenues. TAROM, the market leader, registered a 27% increase in air traffic during the first half of the year and has increased its estimates for this year to 1.8 million passengers.
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