Low-cost traffic is set to reach half the volume of passengers carried by established airlines this year, according to ZF estimates taking into account traffic of around 4.5 million passengers for the domestic traditional air market.
As a result, the number of passengers carried by low-cost operators in Romania will reach 2.5-2.7 million this year, while four years ago operators with low fares were making the first inroads on the Romanian market.
The top three low-cost operators on the domestic market, which cover around 90% of overall traffic, carried around 1.7 million passengers in the first nine months of this year, up 40% from last year and are set to reach 2.5-2.7 million passengers should they hit the announced targets.
Blue Air still holds the leading position, although nine-month figures point to tighter competition with Wizz Air. Last year, Blue Air came close to one million passengers, while the Hungarian company's traffic to and from Romania failed to exceed 500,000 passengers. After nine-month results, the difference between the two stands at 20,000 passengers.
In fact, Wizz Air also boasted the biggest increase this year among low-cost operators present on the market and targets almost one million passengers for the entire 2008 and a new doubling for 2009. This trend is sustained by the introduction of new flights to and from Romania.
On the other hand, Blue Air is not giving up, either. While it has yet to announce more flights for next year, Blue Air has a major plan as regards the number of aircraft it will operate.
MyAir saw an unexpected performance, and posted a slight decrease in the number of passengers carried on the domestic market in the third quarter. Thus, the company carried 320,000 passengers after the first nine months, losing the second position on the market. Overall, after the first nine months, traffic rose by 10%. However, MyAir has an ace up its sleeve, recently announcing the merger with Slovakia's SkyEurope, which will strengthen the foothold of the two companies domestically.
The domestic low-cost market has felt the impact of the international crisis, but companies have not reviewed their expansion plans for Romania.
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