The real estate investment boom on the Romanian market has turned into a "green light" for airlines, which expect this growth to propagate to the international air transportation sector, as well.
Managers of these companies know from other Central and Eastern European countries that the development of real estate has always been followed by surging air traffic.
"The intensification of investments in the real estate sector is a green light for us, showing that traffic will increase over the following years. In other countries, as well, such as the Czech Republic, Poland or Croatia, real estate investments have been followed by a strong increase in either business or leisure flights. France and Germany are no longer such interesting markets, also due to low-cost operators that have a more powerful presence, and the policy of airlines is to move toward the eastern region, which presents the biggest opportunities," David B. Rousham, British Airways regional manager for Eastern Europe, told Ziarul Financiar.
The Romanian real estate market has been exceptionally dynamic in the last year, involving considerable investments, since it offers some of the highest yields in Europe.
Banking on already rising demand, as well as on these signals, British Airways has decided to increase the number of its Romanian flights early next year and even considers introducing some direct flights from the western area of Romania.
"Demand for air transportation is rising and we need to broaden our offer. We will increase the number of connections between Bucharest and London by three new weekly flights to Gatwick, starting next March. At the same time, we are interested in launching operations in another two Romanian cities, namely Timisoara and Cluj, as Romania is set to join the European Union. Over the following years, this project will certainly materialise," Rousham added.
In the fiscal year that ended on March 1st, British Airways Romania carried 30,000 passengers, 6% more as compared to the previous fiscal year. Over the same period, the company's turnover advanced by 7-8%, to 4 million pounds (5.8 million euros).
"For the fiscal year ending in March 2005, we expect our turnover to surge by about 10% in Romania," specified Rousham.
georgiana.stavarache@zf.ro
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