Aviation globally, but especially in Romania, is difficult to recover after about two years of pandemic. Although airlines have sought to boost ticket sales through all sorts of attractive campaigns and offers, the demand for airline tickets is still below the 2019 reported threshold.
This can be seen from the 2021 figures. Romania's regional airports they reported a significant increase in passenger traffic compared to 2020, but it was still about 50% lower than in 2019.
In addition to the fear of coronavirus, travel restrictions have negatively affected people's desire to travel and have been limited to what is strictly necessary. Thus, the airlines had to cancel thousands of flights and suspend hundreds of routes in the winter season 2021-2022, but also in the summer season. Inclusive Blue Air canceled hundreds of flights for January and February 2022, and the trend continues until June this year.
Obviously, all the less profitable routes with a very low occupancy rate are affected. Instead, profitable routes that are in high demand continue to operate. E.g, Blue Air introduces the third daily flight on the route Bucharest - London Heathrow.
Returning to canceled flights, Blue Air continued to adjust its operational schedule, suspending flights on several routes until the summer:
- Bucharest - Birmingham - from June 9
- Bucharest - Catania - from June 21
- Bucharest - Liverpool - from June 12
- Bucharest - Tel Aviv - from June 9
- Bucharest - Zaragoza - from June 21
- Bacău - Madrid - from June 11
- Cluj - Rome - from June 10
- Cluj - Valencia - from June 21
- Cluj - Brussels - from June 10
- Cluj - Madrid - from June 9
Many other routes will start in March, April or May 2021. At the same time, some routes that appear in the program of regional airports are in a stopover system in Bucharest. Only in the summer will they have direct flights.
From the summer season 2022, Blue Air will reactivate other routes already suspended and here we are talking about Bucharest - Mallorca, Alicante, Bordeaux, Bilbao, Seville, Porto; Iasi - Barcelona; Cluj - Valencia and many more. There are also routes to holiday destinations in Greece.