"Capacity allotted for Romania rose by around 23%. This year we introduced the Cluj-Munich route and next year we'll focus on increasing the frequency of flights on established routes. At the same time, we're looking at new flight opportunities and at the northern area of the country," said Stefan Versemann, general manager of Lufthansa Romania.
As a result, Lufthansa expects to fly around 600,000 passengers domestically, from 500,000 last year. The company operates flights both from Bucharest and other cities in central and West Romania, such as Cluj and Timisoara.
Last year, Lufthansa introduced flights to Germany from Sibiu.
Starting next February, Lufthansa will operate a direct flight from Bucharest to Milan, which will make it the first foreign regular airline to introduce flights to destinations outside their country of origin. So far, it has been just low-cost operators that have bet on this type of expansion, which is possible with Romania's EU integration and the "open sky" agreement.
Lufthansa operates flights from Romanian cities to Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich, with these airports offering connection both to other European countries and to Asia and America. "Around 50% of the passengers flying with Lufthansa from Romania cross these hubs to other destinations. Most of them go to Europe, but there's also a significant number heading to China, Canada or the US," said Versemann.
Business travellers use the majority of Lufthansa's routes, however, Sibiu attracts a higher number of tourists.
However, the route that boasts the biggest occupancy rate increase against 2007 is Bucharest-Munich, with Cluj-Munich also registering significant growth. Overall, the company's occupancy rate posted a slight decline this year, by around 2%, to 78%. To stabilise this indicator, the company also resorted to lower fares, so that domest
