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Infrastructure: Blue Air had 5.06 million passengers last year, 70% more than in 2016
Blue Air, the largest Romanian air company had 5,061,790 passengers last year, 70% more than the previous year and over initial estimates, more than double compared to 2015 when it flew over 2 million passengers.
The 70% increase of passenger number is due to the fact that in 2017, Blue Air continued to expand, increased the number of domestic flights, their frequency, and direct links between the sea coast and some large towns in Romania, a press release shows.
“We succeeded in having a record for the number of routes, with 104 regular flights and over 700 charter flights. Our passengers received the 33 new routes inaugurated in 2017 very well. Even at the end of the year, when Romanians prepared for the New Year’s Eve, the Blue Air team met the new Boeing 737-800 aircraft,” said Blue Air manager Gheorghe Racaru.
In a December interview for News.ro, Racaru said he foresaw a business figure and passenger number increase by 10% in 2018, from 400 million euros and 5 million passengers in 2017.
“As for the number of passengers, we exceed 5 millions this year, 2 millions more than last year. In 2017 we continued to improve our services, in September we launched a new online booking platform, we brought big capacity Boeing airplanes to the fleet, we increased frequency on certain routes. This development contributed to the increase of passenger number,” Racaru declared.
Constanta base which operates 506 flights to Rome, Brussels, Cluj Napoca, Oradea, Iasi, Paris and Timisoara, was launched last year.
At the same time, routes to Turin, Velanci, Munich, Milan, Florence and Glasgow were launched from Iasi last year, while new routes were launched to London, Larnaca, Nice and Tel Aviv from Cluj Napoca.
Flights were inaugurated last year from Bucharest to Tel Aviv, Copenhagen, Bordeaux, Oslo and Helsinki.
“Blue Air also increased the number of foreign flights. A new base was inaugurated at Alghero, Italy, the second base in the company portfolio. Blue Air passengers could travel in 2017 from its international bases to new destinations: from Liverpool to Rome, Milan and Alicante, from Turin to Copenhagen, Malaga, Seville, Lisbon and Trapani, from Larnaca to Birmingham and Liverpool, from Alghero to Rome,”the company informs.
The company also ordered 12 Boeing 737 MAX8 planes last year, and Blue Air will become the first Boeing 737 MAX operator in Romania. The new airplanes will join the fleet in 2019.
Blue Air began its activity on December 13, 2004, and operates now 100 routes in 16 countries. The company has nine operational bases, in Bucharest, Bacau, Cluj Napoca, Constanta, Iasi, Larnaca, Liverpool, Turin and Alghero.
Blue Air has 1500 employees. 85% of company employees are locals in foreign bases. The company has a fleet of 28 Boeing 737 planes.
In 2016 Blue Air became the largest Romanian air company, exceeding Tarom state company for the number of passengers.