Ryanair (FR, Dublin International) is planning to ramp up its Romanian operations over the next five years with domestic flights already on the cards airline CEO Michael O'Leary has said.
"In five years, we estimate there will be 10 million passengers in Romania," he was quoted by the Ziarul Financiar newspaper. "In Poland for example, we operate out of twelve airports with four bases. In Romania, our work should be similar to that of Poland in the coming years. We just have to reach agreements with airports."
O'Leary added that the Irish LCC sees potential for "four to five" bases in Romania while serving ten to twelve airports locally.
Growth within Romania is, however, contingent on the right prices being met. In March, the carrier's Chief Commercial Officer David O'Brien complained that Bucharest Henri Coanda airport was still too expensive an airport to consider opening a base there. He said handling fees there were more expensive than Copenhagen Kastrup in Denmark adding that a drastic reduction in costs would need to occur for the Romanian aviation market to truly reach its potential.
“The airport in Bucharest is too expensive and this is why we have no plans to open a base here. We will think about it when they will have a proper incentive scheme,” he said.
Ryanair's plans to conquer the Romanian market will, however, not come easy as according to ch-aviation's capacity tool, national carrier TAROM (RO, Bucharest Henri Coanda) is still the Eastern European state's most dominant carrier cornering 16.9% of the market followed by Hungarian LCC Wizz Air (W6, Budapest) with 14.51% and Romanian LCC Blue Air (Romania) (BLA, Bucharest Henri Coanda) with 8.33%. Ryanair currently sits in fourth place with 7.21%. Domestically, Tarom again controls the lion's share followed by Blue Air.
