Blue Air turnover 25% higher in Q1 2008

The airline plans to attract “substantial” numbers of clients on its new Bucharest-Sibiu route, according to the company’s General Manager, Gheorghe Racaru, for Business Standard.

In order to retain its top spot on the Romanian low-cost market, Blue Air has added a series of routes abroad over the summer, including Arad-Barcelona, Bucharest-Larnaca, Bucharest-Berlin, and Sibiu-Stuttgart. Racaru is expecting turnover in 2008 to amount to €130 million, 35 percent higher year-on-year. Some 90 percent of the airline’s business in 2007 was due to its Bucharest routes, and only 10 percent from other airports around the country, namely Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Arad and Iasi.

The Romanian low-cost market increased 30-40 percent in the past two years, being compared by analysts with the Polish market.