All low-cost airlines currently activating on Aurel Vlaicu Airport are expected to move their operations to the Henri Coanda Airport in a few years, as fees will be lower than those applied now in Baneasa, according to players on the market.
“Normally, fees are lower where aircraft traffic is over 50,000, as in the case of Otopeni Airport,” Catalin Radu, General Manager of the Civil Aviation Department of the Ministry of Transports, said yesterday. He added that in future, many fees applied at Aurel Vlaicu Airport will be raised to cover investments. “The state will no longer invest in Baneasa, and they will need to cover their investments. How else if not from operation fees? Operators will probably shift to Otopeni,” Radu said.
In turn, George Mihalcea, General Manager of the Aurel Vlaicu Airport, said that fees will not increase in Baneasa in the near future, and the only changes to appear as of 1 November will be discounts granted to airlines.
The second trend considered by representatives in this sector is the concentration of international flights at major airports, where certain areas in the country must be covered. “All these flights could be concentrated at four airports which have high passenger traffic, and the rest can limit their operations locally. I refer to the airports with over 500,000 passengers, namely Otopeni, Baneasa, Timisoara, and Cluj,” Radu added.
