35% fewer tourists to use charter flights this year

Tourists’ shrinking holiday budgets dragged the charter flight market down by 35-40% from last year as travel agencies cancelled or combined part of flights because of the low load factor. Whereas last summer 45 planes flew to Greece and 15 planes to Spain weekly, now their number has been halved, according to the data provided by the National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT). These are, however, preliminary data that ANAT collected from market players, with precise data on the situation of charter flights due to be provided at the end of the season. Most flight cancellations or combinations were operated in cities such as Timisoara and Cluj-Napoca, where decreases were deeper than in Bucharest, according to Mircea Vladu, owner of Prestige Tours travel agency, with 8m-euro turnover last year. Travel agencies have seen turnovers shrink by 20% on average since year start amid the cheaper holidays and ticket price cuts, with this being the first decline in recent years.