Low-cost airline market revenues slide back to their 2007 level

Market players said that low-cost airlines will not be able to post revenues as high as in the past few years, when traffic soared 30-40 percent annually. According to these, revenues registered by airlines in 2009 on the Romanian market will fall 15 percent, to slightly over €160 million, similar to the 2007 level.

In spite of these forecasts officials of low-cost companies operating on the local market said they will not eliminate flights, rather they will add new ones to their business. The Wizz Air low-cost airline announced it will double its Romanian flight capacity.

Other operators are expecting 2009 to be a profitable year, in spite of economic uncertainty and international bankruptcies registered in the air industry in 2008. “Considering the current price of fuel and the exchange rate, we are expecting a profitable year,” said Peter Voets, easyJet Marketing Manager for Switzerland, Austria and Eastern Europe.

For Blue Air, leader on the local low-cost airline market, the forecast for 2009 regarding the increase of revenues stops at 10-15 percent, due to higher costs.