As Romanian tourists have more money available to spend on holidays, the number of charter flights has doubled to around 1,500 return charter flights operated by travel agencies in partnership with airlines during this summer season, according to the preliminary data released by the National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT).

Given that most of the aircraft used for charter flights have between 100 and 150 seats, travel agencies will sell almost 200,000 travel packages including charter flights. Thus, against an average price of 400 euros for an all-inclusive trip to Antalya, the total value of charter flight packages sold during the summer season is likely to hit 80m euros.

"The number of charter flights rose as Romanians' living standards have improved, (...)" said Traian Badulescu, ANAT representative.

Thus, though charter flights are not their core business, airlines get higher profit margins by operating such flights. In the case of charter flights operated in partnership with travel agencies, aircraft are entirely rented by a travel agency or several partner agencies. An agency booking such seats has the obligation to pay for them even if it does not manage to resell them to tourists.

As far as airlines are concerned, this translates, in profitability terms, into a 100% occupancy rate, while in the case of travel agencies profitability depends on the number of customers they manage to win. Generally, travel agencies get an occupancy rate of around 90%. "The busiest period starts from early August and ends around September 10," says Ondina Dobriban, a programme manager with Paralela 45 agency operating 11 charter flights per week.

The cost of renting an aircraft for a charter flight is computed by multiplying the cost of a ticket by the number of seats. However, it is worth considering travel agencies get certain discounts makin