Originally Posted by
ajs123
Anyone with some info why OTP (Bucurest) grew 41%? Tarom is not exactly on a expansion course, so low cost airlines perhaps?
Originally Posted by
NickB
Baneasa airport closed to scheduled airline traffic in 2012 so all LCCs that operated to/from there were transferred to OTP. The fact that RO is not the largest airline in Europe makes that move all the more visible in statistics since fewer flights will be a larger proportion of the total.
Yup - that is the main reason. BBU is closed to commercial traffic and all that has been moved to OTP. OTP has been expanded to allow for that: the check-in area has more than doubled in size, tons of gates added (including lounges, stores, restaurants, coffee shops) however the arrivals area, including luggage belts, remains undersized.
There has been an increase of overall traffic as well, just not very dramatic. LCCs have had an impact; the LCC market at OTP is now mature. Qatar Airways now operates a flight to DOH, allowing for decent connections to ME/Asia/Australia (as opposed to flying to FRA/AMS/LHR/CDG/etc first and then backtrack.)
I don't know much about RO, but I doubt they have been expanding. I would assume that the overwhelming majority of RO customers are O/D. As far as I know RO is in the midst of a power struggle (the board is ousting the CEO, the guy on the board responsible for this is now himself being ousted, and so on). I don't see them expanding or attracting additional traffic anytime soon.