December 22 (SeeNews) - Low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle expects its passenger growth on routes into Southeast Europe (SEE) to be in the mid-single digits in 2011, a senior company official said.
"We have had very good results so far in 2011 on all routes to SEE. We have expanded our frequency to many of our existing markets there," the carrier's chief commercial officer, Daniel Skjeldam, told SeeNews in a telephone interview.
"All of the markets where we are present now will continue to grow in 2012 and forward."
Serbia generated the highest growth rate for the carrier in 2011 but in terms of absolute numbers, the passenger increase was highest on Croatian routes.
Norwegian Air Shuttle currently flies to Belgrade in Serbia and to Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Pula and Dubrovnik in Croatia.
Skjeldam said the carrier plans to open new routes from Denmark and Finland to Serbia, Bulgaria and Croatia next year.
"We will offer a service from Copengahen to Belgrade, from Helsinki to Burgas and from Helsinki to Dubrovnik. We are also looking for new routes to Bosnia and may very well come up with new offerings but we are not finished with our traffic programme for 2012 yet."
Norwegian Air Shuttle sees a lot of potential in the region because many of these markets, even though they are not part of the European Union, have opened up their skies and that has driven growth. "There have not been any challenges for us as bilateral agreements have allowed us to build up a market presence across the region. The non-EU markets have been very liberal in allowing carriers to fly," the official said.
The other SEE destinations where Norwegian Air Shuttle has points of presence are Bulgarian Black Sea ports of Burgas and Varna, Bosnia's Sarajevo and Kosovo's Pristina.
Among SEE markets currently not served by Norwegian Air Shuttle that look like exciting prospects over the longer run, Skjeldam pointed out Romania, Montenegro and Slovenia.
"I would say that we will probably start a service to one or several of these markets within two years."
The official noted that although the leisure customer is the carrier's primary target on routes into SEE at the moment, Norwegian Air Shuttle is also seeing a rising number of business travellers opting to take advantage of lower fares.
Skjeldam is upbeat on the business opportunities offered by secondary cities throughout the region, especially in view of the carrier's excellent performance on such routes to Croatia.
"Bulgaria and Romania have a lot of upside potential in terms of their coastal cities. We see opportunities for that to happen along the coastline of Montenegro as well with Tivat having great potential."