Traffic on Bucharest's Baneasa Airport rose by 16% in the firstnine months of this year, to 1.36 million passengers, according toGeorge Mihalcea, general manager of the airport.
Though SkyEurope and MyAir low-cost operators halted theiroperations, the first failures announced on the low-cost segment,the airport's traffic and turnover continued to go up.
Thus, with just five low-cost carriers still operational, Blue Air,Wizz Air, Germanwings, Koral Blue and Nouvelair, Baneasa Airport'snine-month turnover advanced by almost 48% in RON, to 62m RON(14.7m euros).
"At the same time, the airport's gross income is expected to risealmost four times, from 6.8m RON, to 27m RON (6.4m euros) byyearend," stated George Mihalcea. Last year, the airport's trafficreached 1.7 million passengers.
International Airport Aurel Vlaicu (Baneasa) will merge withInternational Airport Henri Coanda (Otopeni), through the settingup of Bucharest National Airport Company, after the government lastmonth approved the deal.
Whereas the airport from where low-cost operators fly is boastingrising traffic, at Otopeni airport, where 26 companies fly from,including Tarom, Lufthansa, KLM, Malev, Air France and easyJet,traffic is down 13%, to 2.95 million passengers in the first eightmonths of this year. "We had 200m RON turnover (47.6m euros),around 5% higher in RON than the level of last year. Net income forthe January-August period reached 62.4m RON (16.9m euros), downaround 4% from a year ago", stated Tudor Jidav, general manager ofOtopeni airport, adding he does not have any data forSeptember.
Regular airlines' turnovers have been harmed since the start of theyear amid the current difficult conditions. State-owned Tarom, with257m-euro turnover last year, in the first 8 months of this yearcarried 1 million passengers, 11.9% less than in the same period oflast year.
Traian Vuia airport of Timisoara generated income of almost 3.3mRON in the first nine months, down about 42% from a year ago.
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