Hungarian airline Malev, which is among the top five foreign operators in Romania, is considering introducing new flights after the Bucharest-Budapest route climbed to the third position in terms of efficiency at a group level, after Amsterdam-Budapest and Brussels-Budapest.
The Romanian market, which generated turnover worth 11.5m euros for Malev last year, was the company's first market in Central and Eastern Europe and is an important area of business for the airline.
"Romania is a special market for Malev, because we operate flights to five destinations. At present, we cover 5 cities: Bucharest, Timisoara, Constanta, Cluj-Napoca and Targu-Mures," said Madalina Cretu, country commercial manager for Romania and Moldova.
Cretu was appointed by the Hungarian airline to head Romanian operations three years ago, while the number of flights has at least doubled during this period. Malev also increased the number of flights on the most important routes in Romania, namely Bucharest-Budapest and Targu-Mures-Budapest.
"This year we strengthened our position on the Romanian market. We did not introduce any new flights, but growth was registered amid the stabilisation of routes introduced in the past," said Cretu.
This year, the airline posted 20% higher revenues, while the number of passengers increased at a similar rate. As a result, Malev carried 200,000 passengers to and from Romania in the first 3 quarters of this year.
Malev registered turnover worth 11.5m euros in 2006 and now controls around 7% of the domestic market, which makes it one of the leading foreign airlines in Romania. Should the nine-month growth rate continue until the end of the year, Malev is likely to derive domestic turnover worth around 14 million euros, according to ZF estimates.
"It's very hard to develop on a market where every company targets growth, but Romania has a high potential. We hope the growth trend continues next year and that we exceed this growth rate, given that we are considering new flight opportunities. We are open to any new destination that is viable and do not rule out internal flights," added Cretu. Malev is the first foreign regular airline that is considering introduction of internal flights in Romania.
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