After a missed start in 2022, Romania’s latest airline, AirConnect, operated its maiden regular operations yesterday morning. The first flight, KS1105 connected the company’s main base in Bucharest to Sibiu, in the central part of the country.
Operations from Bucharest to Suceava and Baia Mare, in the Northeast and Northwest of Romania respectively, were also undertaken in this initial day of flights. Today, the remaining destinations of Budapest, Cluj-Napoca and Târgu Mureș were introduced.
“We have proposed to become the first option of flight or passengers of Southeastern Europe, and today we made a first step in this direction”, said AirConnect’s General Director, Tudor Constantinescu, who is also a shareholder of the company, in a press release.
“We are glad to be able to offer Romanians a connection at good prices, safe, fast and comfortable, between the capital [Bucharest, ed.] and one of the largest cities in the country [Sibiu]”, Constantinescu added. “We are actively working for diversification of routes. In three months we will operate new flights, especially for the Summer season. Most probably, from Autumn, we will extend the list of domestic destinations, but also of international destinations.
The first operation to and from Sibiu was operated by a wet-leased Saab 340, operated by Estonia’s NyxAir. AirConnect, however, has two ATR 72-600 in its fleet, one of which (YR-ACB) is wet-leased to Air Serbia. The other, YR-ACA, has operated its first regular flight yesterday afternoon, according to data by FlightRadar24, connecting Bucharest to Baia Mare and vice-versa as KS1103/1104.
Although AirConnect’s initial network could be operated by a single aircraft, both NyxAir’s Saab 340 and the ATR 72-600 have been performing flights for the start-up.
While AirConnect arrives at the Romanian market trying to promote itself as a convenient option, it will face competition in a number of routes from Bucharest; the ones to Baia Mare, Budapest and Suceava are already served by TAROM, the country’s flag carrier, with the same aircraft and higher frequency.
The route to Sibiu, meanwhile, sees relevant competition with ground transportation, as both cities are four hours away by car from each other.
According to BoardingPass.ro, Romania’s main aviation news website, AirConnect intends to use the wet-leased Saab for two weeks; for the Summer season, it intends to lease an ATR 42-500 also from NyxAir, the outlet reported.
