Wizz Air expects to end the first nine months of 2009 with some 1.2 million passengers, to and from Romania, up 86 percent year-on-year. According to results registered in the first six months, the airline surpassed, in terms of passenger traffic, its main competitor, the local Blue Air operator, three years from the time it entered the Romanian market.

Last February, Wizz Air introduced 12 weekly flights from Timişoara to Barcelona, Milan, Paris, Valencia, and Venice, which were added to the three flights to London, Dortmund, and Rome, operational since 2008.

“The niche left open by MyAir was very quickly covered by us and, to some extent by other players on this market. This accelerated our development in Italy. The MyAir and SkyEurope bankruptcies came as no surprise to us. A consolidation of the market was to be expected, and this is not yet over,” Natasa Kazmer, Head of Corporate Communication and Public Affairs of Wizz Air told Business Standard. Kazmer added that the Romanian market continues to be a competitive one, and passengers are paying more attention to costs. According to the official, the low-cost air segment was the main engine for the development of Romanian air transport in the past few years, and will generate significant traffic in Bucharest and at other local airports. At present, the Romanian low-cost market is worth some €160 million.