Liverpool gears up for Bucharest flights
BUDGET airline Blue Air is preparing to launch the region’s first direct flights to the Romanian capital Bucharest in December.
It is running three flights a week from Liverpool John Lennon, using a 162 seat Boeing 737-400.
The airline currently operates from Luton and chief commercial officer Tudor Constantinescu told TheBusinessDesk.com that research carried out with passengers suggested many were travelling from the North.
“It identified a need for flights somewhere in the North. We explored all the possible airports and found that Liverpool has a very good team that we felt had the energy to invest in the project.”
Mr Constantinescu said he wanted to “serve everybody” from Romanians visiting family to tourists and business travellers. However, he does not expect the lifting of UK working restrictions for people from Romania and Bulgaria in January to have much of an impact.
Critics of the change expected many to arrive but the numbers didn’t materialise. In the first quarter there were 140,000 Romanians and Bulgarians working in the UK, down 4% on the final three months of 2013.
“We haven’t seen it in Luton,” said Mr Constantinescu who is working with Romania’s honorary consul in Liverpool to develop business traffic and is also involved with Romania Gateway 2018, which is promoting closer trade links between the UK and Romania.
The arrival of Blue Air adds a fifth airline to Liverpool after Easyjet, Ryanair, Flybe, and Wizz Air which also operates Bucharest flights from Robin Hood at Doncaster, another airport owned by the Peel Group.
