Sky Europe Airlines opens new flights in Romania

“With this we aim to defeat the main competition we have on this segment – Austrian Airlines and Tarom,” said Karim Makhlouf, the airline's commercial director.
The company reported a growth of 35 percent in turnover in Romania, reaching EUR 80.6 million in H1 of 2007, against EUR 59.7 million turnover registered on 2006.
According to SkyEurope's official representative, the 8.8 million passengers transported in the last year make the company a market leader in Central and Eastern Europe.
For Romania, Makhlouf estimated 3.5 million passengers would be transported by the company to Vienna and to the 17 European destinations via Vienna.
“Romania and Bucharest are our key market objective and we keep the costs as low as possible. Since we operate the youngest fleet, the maintenance costs are also low, 70 percent less than the other companies' costs,” said Makhlouf.
Sky Europe owns 16 Boeing 737 aircraft and plans on doubling the fleet in the next three years. According to Makhlouf, the flight operations in Romania represent 5-8 percent of the entire group's turnover and he estimates for 2007 a total turnover of EUR 280 million.

Magda Purice