Blue Air’s expansion from Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Iasi, Flybondi restarting international service, and Frontier Airlines launching flights from New York Stewart are among the latest route announcements and services resuming.
Virgin Australia’s new seasonal flights to Launceston, Wizz Air adding connections from Hungary and Romania and Saudia returning to Manchester are among the latest new route announcements and services resuming.
Routes analyzes some of the services returning as well as new routes being launched. This week we look at Wizz opening routes to Romania from Birmingham; Air Arabia Abu Dhabi’s latest service; and Air France’s decision to begin flights to a fourth destination in India.
Central and Eastern European ULCC Wizz Air this week plans to restart selected routes from London Luton and Vienna, subject to no further government restrictions being put in place.
Romania’s air travel market continues to expand, with seat numbers on course this year to top 25 million for the first time. Low-cost carrier Wizz Air has been a key driver and its growth shows no signs of abating.
The latest expansion and the flights to two new European capitals will increase the Wizz Air network to 116 airports across 38 countries as it continues its rapid growth. Its departure capacity has grown at an average annual rate of 64.4 per cent between 2005 and 2104 from just over 2.5 million seats to almost 17.5 million last year. This year capacity will grow by an estimated 24.0 per cent to over 21.5 million departure seats.
Wizz Air made its debut in the Romanian market in July 2006 when it introduced flights to Tirgu Mures from Budapest and now offers flights from eight Romanian destinations comprising, Arad, Bucharest Henri Coanda, Cluj-Napoca, Constana, Craiova, Iasi, Sibiu, Tirgu Mures and Timisoara covering 95 routes to 15 different countries and offering more than two million annual seats from the country.
