| Carrier: | Blue Air
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| Headquarters: | Romania
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| Founded: | 2004
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| Destinations: | 19
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| Bases: | Bucharest (Aurel Vlaicu)
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| Owners: | Private Investors
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| Listed: | Yes
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| Online Booking: | Yes
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| Website: | http://www.blueair-web.com
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| Fleet | B737-500 1
B737-300 2
| Overview - Blue Air
BlueAir – an opportunity, but time is of the essence Blue Air is the first Romanian LCC, operating a fleet of three B737s from capital city Bucharest’s second airport, Aurel Vlaicu (formerly Baneasa). The carrier serves 14 destinations, including one non-stop flight from Transylvanian city Arad to Spain's Valencia. The carrier supplements its income by offering charter services to holiday groups.
The Romanian market for low cost air services is potentially vibrant, with a large population (2.4 million in Bucharest and the surrounding suburbs), an inefficient and expensive flag carrier (Tarom) and accession to the European Union planned for 2007. And with the economy already beginning to show signs of vibrancy after years of underperformance, the Romanian appetite for travel is high. For now, the company connects its Baneasa base with secondary airports in Western Europe (including Paris Beauvais, Rome Ciampino, Frankfurt Hahn), as well as Istanbul. But Blue Air has yet to realise its potential.
With a small fleet required to serve its 14 scheduled routes, it is unable to offer more than two or three times weekly service to most destinations, which is inadequate to satisfy the requirements of passengers, especially business travellers. Outlook: good potential, but a finite window of opportunity Blue Air is presented with an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of Romania’s liberalised aviation sector. But, with the CEE’s other LCCs already looking east for O&D and transfer traffic, it will need to secure its place quickly or risk becoming irrelevant. The investment in additonal aircraft to fill in the holes in its service pattern is a daunting, but necessary, first step.
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