Low-Cost Carrier Germanwings Expects at Least 5.0% Increase in Passengers to Bulgaria in '09

“We moved from 81.5% [passenger load factor in flights to Bulgaria in 2007] to 83% [this year] and our minimum expectation is to have in general 85%,” Germanwings’ public relations international manager, Andreas Engel, told reporters.

The company entered the Bulgarian market in March 2007. It flies to the capital Sofia and the Black Sea ports of Varna and Burgas.

Engel said the company sees its operations growing in Bulgaria despite the global crisis, adding that Germanwings expects business people, one of its target groups, to switch to low-cost carriers due to cost cuts.
 
“In April next year we [...] will have to decide whether to increase our number of flights or maybe look to another city,” he added.

Germanwings, set up in 2002, operates flights to over 60 destinations across Europe with a fleet of 25 planes. In southeast Europe, it flies to Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo.