The man behind Carpatair

After attracting one of the wealthiest men in the world into his business (Ingvar Kamprad of IKEA), Nicolae Petrov (photo), the founder of Carpatair, wants to link Russia with destinations in Southern Italy. Compared with the 700 hours which an airline pilot flies per year, Nicolae Petrov flies around 250-300 hours. “Flying is a hobby and an exercise which ‘resets your computer’. You can manage your business much better when flying than in the office,” says the former Moldovan military pilot. Nicolae Petrov, sober-looking, and attentive, with glasses and a dark-coloured suit speaks in a calm and even voice, and every time a place or a route comes up in conversation, he reaches for his pen and flight map. The first place he identifies is Tighina (Bender), in the Republic of Moldova where he was born in 1966. From there, the pen “takes off” to Volgograd, and to the steppe areas in the South of the former USSR, the Kacea Academy for Military Pilots – the best military aviation school in Russia, which Petrov graduated from at the age of 21, as a pilot and aeronautical engineer. The pen travels across the map, as the story of the last 20 years unfolds, with stops in Ukraine, Romania, Germany, Italy, Greece – markets that Carpatair has entered. Starting this month, Carpatair will operate the Odessa – Timisoara flight, and also launch a flight to Kiev during the course of this year. “This is our growth strategy: to unite, through our Timisoara-based hub, Greece, Germany and Italy, with the former USSR countries,” explains the former MIG pilot. Find out how Nicolae Petrov has gone from being a MIG pilot to managing a company with business worth over 100 million euros, in a story that spans over 20 years, in this week’s edition of BUSINESS Magazin.