Germany's Lufthansa airline, a major operator in Romania, saw passenger numbers rise by 18% in the first half of this year, according to 2008 estimates, amid the introduction of more flights to and from Romania.
"Capacity allotted for Romania rose by around 23%. This year we introduced the Cluj-Munich route and next year we'll focus on increasing the frequency of flights on established routes. At the same time, we're looking at new flight opportunities and at the northern area of the country," said Stefan Versemann, general manager of Lufthansa Romania.
As a result, Lufthansa expects to fly around 600,000 passengers domestically, from 500,000 last year. The company operates flights both from Bucharest and other cities in central and West Romania, such as Cluj and Timisoara.
Last year, Lufthansa introduced flights to Germany from Sibiu.
Starting next February, Lufthansa will operate a direct flight from Bucharest to Milan, which will make it the first foreign regular airline to introduce flights to destinations outside their country of origin. So far, it has been just low-cost operators that have bet on this type of expansion, which is possible with Romania's EU integration and the "open sky" agreement.
Lufthansa operates flights from Romanian cities to Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich, with these airports offering connection both to other European countries and to Asia and America. "Around 50% of the passengers flying with Lufthansa from Romania cross these hubs to other destinations. Most of them go to Europe, but there's also a significant number heading to China, Canada or the US," said Versemann.
Business travellers use the majority of Lufthansa's routes, however, Sibiu attracts a higher number of tourists.
However, the route that boasts the biggest occupancy rate increase against 2007 is Bucharest-Munich, with Cluj-Munich also registering significant growth. Overall, the company's occupancy rate posted a slight decline this year, by around 2%, to 78%. To stabilise this indicator, the company also resorted to lower fares, so that domestic market revenues advanced by around 10%, despite the number of passengers soaring by 18%.
The Romanian market ranks second in the region both in terms of growth rates and revenues, after Poland.
Versemann also runs the domestic operations of SWISS. The two companies merged internationally in 2005, and, started to operate as one entity on the Romanian market this year. Together with SWISS, which besides the Bucharest-Zurich route also introduced flights to Geneva this year, Lufthansa operates 99 flights to and from Romania.
Domestically, Lufthansa competes with TAROM, Air France-KLM, British Airways, Malev and Austrian Airlines.
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