Jetran Air, a company acquired two weeks ago by Ovidiu Tender, will consider launching regular flights next year.
"We are in no hurry to move on to the stage of regular flights," says Bogdan Dimitrescu, deputy manager of Jetran Air, which was taken over by the Tender Group for 45 million dollars (28 million euros).
Dimitrescu uses the word "stage" because until now the company's core activity has been aircraft rental; at first under a wet-lease system (aircraft rental that includes the crew and additional services operated under the name of the lessee) to foreign airlines, and charter flights, which were launched for the first time this year and operate under the Jetran brand both in Romania and abroad.
"It has been a step-by-step development, and the wet lease market, on which we originally focused our attention, has boosted our turnover, which has enabled us to operate under our own name, and in the future, as a regular airline," says Dimitrescu.
For a company that has been present on the Romanian market since 2002, Jetran is not widely known, as it has predominantly rented aircraft to foreign companies. However, Jetran has become more visible since its acquisition by Ovidiu Tender. The deal is unique for the local market, being the first sale of an airline (with the exception of start-ups at the beginning of the decade.) Low-cost carrier Blue Air has been put up for sale, but the negotiations were not followed through due to the difficulties faced by the European aviation market, mainly high fuel costs and an overcrowding.
Ovidiu Tender says he bought Jetran because it was for up for sale: "The crunch. We will wait and see what happens with the new acquisition in the future, but I believe that it is a profitable business."
Jetran Air Romania posted turnover worth 25 million euros in 2007, and forecasts at least 35 million euros for this year.
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