Lufthansa enters local market with low-cost division

Germanwings airline, Lufthansaes low-cost division, will operate in Romania as of March 25, estimating to see 35,000 passengers in its first year in business. The biggest low-cost company in Romania, Blue Air, forecasts it will transport 500,000 passengers this year. “Romania is a market with potential. We will only operate one route to start with, Bucharest-Cologne (the Cologne/Bonn) airport), but we are also considering other destinations with Baneasa airport as a terminal, which we might introduce this year, as well,” Andreas Engel, the company representative told ZF. The company intends to have three roundtrip flights to the destination per week, with the frequency to be increased in the future. Available destinations from Bucharest also include Berlin, Hamburg and Stuttgart. In addition to the Bucharest-Cologne route, Germanwings will also introduce new routes to Cologne from Burgas (Bulgaria), Sarajevo, Sofia, Zadar (Croatia), Varna (Bulgaria), Alghero (Sardinia) or Kavala (Macedonia), according to information available on the companyes site.