An increase by 20 percent of the carried passengers, dozens of new routes and an apparent revival of domestic routes – that’s how the Romanian aviation showed last year.
Over 16 million passengers passed through Romanian airports in 2016, about one-fifth more than in 2015, capital.ro informs.
The positive evolution of the economy, but also the higher number of foreign tourists have contributed to this positive trend, given that the land transport infrastructure is still far from satisfactory.
Thus , ‘Henri Coanda’ (Otopeni) International Airport in Bucharest exceeded for the first time 10 million passengers threshold in early December 2016 and it’s forecasted that the passengers number to have reached 11 million at year-end given the winter holidays. It’s about a plus of 18 percent compared to 9.3 million passengers recorded in 2015.
“As of January 2017, we will move to a higher category, that of airports with a traffic between 10 and 25 million passengers per year, and it’s possible, if it keeps this pace, that in a year or two to overcome Budapest airport,” Valentin Iordache, Foreign Affairs Director, Bucharest Airports National Company (CNAB), stated.
According to him, the positive development is due to economic growth, revenue increase, but also the share increase of low-cost airlines, which have come to represent about 50 percent of passenger traffic on Henri Coanda Airport, offering services comparable to those of traditional lines at accessible prices.
At the same time, ‘Avram Iancu’ Airport in Cluj Napoca recorded last year an absolute record of passengers: almost 1.9 million, up 25 percent compared to 2015. 2.7 to 3 million people are estimated to use its services in 2017 (100 times more in two decades, given the annual traffic of just 32,000 passengers in 1996).
‘Traian Vuia’ Airport in Timisoara has recorded 1.16 million passengers in 2016, up by 26 percent in 2015. The increase was based both on new routes and Ryanair base launched last year. Moreover, the air cargo traffic increased by 48 percent, due to the opening of a new DHL terminal a year ago. For 2017, about 1.7 million passengers are expected to land and take off from here.
In its turn, Iasi Airport, located in the other side of the country, prides itself with a spectacular growth of more than 0.89 million passengers in 2016, with 133 percent more than 381,000 passengers in 2015. The airport of the Moldovan capital has already achieved the traffic envisaged in the development plan for 2026.
Overall, the airports in Bacau, Sibiu, Craiova, Targu Mures, Suceava, Constanta, Oradea and Satu Mare recorded 1.3 million passengers last year.