Plane ticket sales through travel agencies have increased by 22% to 90.8 million euros in the first half, according to the Romanian IATA office, which monitors civil flights throughout Romania.
Early in the year, the IATA had said it was expecting about 10% growth for the whole of 2004.
"The first half results were beyond expectations and if this pace is maintained, total ticket sales may reach 200 million euros," stated Denisa Sanda Maria, IATA Romania manager.
This figure only includes plane tickets sold through travel agencies, which account for about 80% of the total market. The remaining 20% is made up of sales made directly by the airlines or via the Internet, as well as the sales of tickets in the Republic of Moldova, though these account for less than 2% of the total.
"The increase in demand is due to the intensification of Romania's economic and touristic relations with other countries, given its upcoming European Union accession," the IATA Romania official explained.
Another reason is the recovery of air traffic after a particularly difficult period caused by the war in Iraq, the SARS epidemic and the terror attacks of the last few years.
Air traffic rose 19.4% globally in the first five months of this year, according to the latest report released by the International Air Traffic Association (IATA).
"Our ticketing business went up about 20% in the first six months of this year. Economy class tickets account for the bulk of our ticket sales, but there are also multinational companies that make business class reservations. People are travelling more often, either for business or touristic purposes," stated Nicolae Demetriade, chairman of Bucharest's Happy Tours travel agency.
The agency logged revenues of 20 million euros last year, with ticketing making up some 70% of this figure.
"I don't have the exact first half data yet but the ticketing business certainly went up 15%. We set out to sell 4-4.5 million euros in plane tickets for the entire year. In any case, we have also been developing extensively, as we opened a number of additional agencies throughout the country. The agency in Sibiu is due to receive IATA certification in a matter of days so that it can start selling plane tickets," said Alin Burcea, chairman of Bucharest-based Paralela 45 travel agency.
There are currently about 180 IATA-certified agencies in Romania that may sell plane tickets.
The destinations in highest demand are those in the European Union, with Paris and Madrid standing at the top of the league in terms of popularity.
Romanian travel agencies sold more than 400,000 plane tickets last year, worth 165 million euros, up 21% from 2002. Last year also saw the euro replace the dollar as the benchmark currency in the industry, a change that took place as of November 1.
georgiana.stavarache@zf.ro
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