Blue Air set to expand to holiday destinations

Blue Air low cost carrier, controlled by Nelu Iordache, this
year expects a 5% increase in the number of passengers and
implicitly in sales on the Italian market, in the wake of the
partnership it has recently sealed with an Italian airline. “We
wanted to join forces with a company with similar turnover. Almost
30% of Blue Air operations are related to Italy, and flights to
Italian destinations have 80-85% occupancy rates,” said Adrian
Ionascu, general manager of Blue Air, which reached 140m-euro
turnover last year and flew 1.7 million passengers. In the wake of
the partnership signed with Italy’s Distal Grup, Blue Air will sell
tickets to Havana and Bangkok via Rome, but also to Palermo, Turin
and Lamezia with a stopover in Rome. Blue Air officials estimate
they will sell 20,000 plane tickets on these routes, generating
revenues worth 2 or 3m euros. “We’ve set expansion abroad as a
strategy for 2010. (…) In the first stage, we’ll target only
holiday destinations and for the following years we’re considering
introducing flights for the business segment,” Ionascu said.