Carpatair airline, held by Nicolae Petrov, said it signed a lease-to-purchase agreement for the acquisition of three new 72-seats Fokker 70 aircraft.
The increase in aircraft fleet is part of the carrier’s medium-term strategy aimed at modernizing fleet, adding new routes and tapping new markets.
The newly-acquired aircrafts will serve both short and medium-haul routes from the carrier’s hubs in Timisoara and Bucharest and from other airports across the country.
The first aircraft will be delivered in December 2009, while the remaining two are expected to arrive in February and March next year.
The aircraft features two classes: Business Class - 12 seats and Economy Class – 60 seats. The largest Fokker 70 aircraft operators in Europe are KLM and Austrian Airlines.
“The acquisition of Fokker 70 aircrafts offers us the possibility of operating new routes and tapping new markets, for which the Fokker 100 seat capacity is too high. Furthermore, the operation of Fokker 70 allows us to optimize operating costs for certain routes by up to 20%. During the winter season, aircrafts will serve the existent routes, and starting March - April 2010, we will add new ones, exclusively operated with Fokker 70”, said Nicolae Petrov, chairman and chief executive of Carpatair.
For the time being, Carpatair operates over 250 regular weekly flights to 30 destinations in 6 countries.
