Ticketing poised for 10% growth in 2004

The volume of airline tickets sold by the travel agencies this year will witness a moderate growth of about 10%, compared to 2003’s 21%. “People took so many trips last year because of the lifting of the visas, but also because of the improvement in the living standards of certain population segments, which are starting to afford to travel by aeroplane. The upward trend will maintain in 2004, but will be slower,” said Denisa Maria Sanda, the manager of the Romanian office of IATA, the institution that monitors the civil aviation sector. The number of airline tickets sold in 2003 is in excess of 400,000. IATA Romania monitors the sales of airline tickets through licensed travel agencies, which amounted to $155 million in 2003, according to the latest estimates. Most of the tickets in Romania, about 80%, are sold through travel agencies, while the rest are sold by airlines themselves or via the Internet. “The share of sales over the web is on the rise in Romania as in every country of the world. Romanians are rather reluctant about it for the time being, some of them have no idea such a way to book tickets exists, while others don’t have access to a computer,” Sanda added. ZF