The expansion of low-cost airlines on the Romanian market hasmeant tougher competition, as well as a change in the businessmodel pursued by traditional airlines, which "borrowed" elementsfrom low-cost operators' strategy: price, baggage fees and onlinecheck-in.
Whilst five years ago the two biggest low-cost players on themarket, Wizz Air of Hungary and Blue Air, controlled by NeluIordache, accounted for only 6% of the market together, whilepassenger traffic amounted to only 4.4 million, last year the twocompanies reached 37% of the overall air travel market, estimatedat 9 million passengers, according to ZF calculations.
"In order to cope with competition from low-cost companies, as wellas to give passengers more freedom to choose services, regularairlines requested to be allowed to "break up" the price of theaeroplane ticket, so that food and baggage transport would be paidseparately," said Anca Apahidean, country manager of IATA(International Air Travel Association) for Romania and the Republicof Moldova, which represents regular airlines.
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