Romania’s Carpatair is feeling the inroads of LCCs in its regional market

Carpatair has added its first Boeing 737 to its fleet of regional aircraft, allowing the airline to develop longer range routes and to reduce unit costs particularly on routes where it competes head-to-head with Wizz Air. By deploying higher capacity aircraft, Carpatair hopes to boost its competitiveness and adapt to the changing environment with LCCs increasingly expanding their footprint into regional markets.

Carpatair commenced operations in 1999 providing regional connectivity from Timişoara Traian Vuia International Airport to other cities in Romania as well as a number of international airports. The airline built its operations on the traditional hub-and-spoke model using a fleet of Saab 2000 and Fokker 70/Fokker 100 aircraft. Carpatair has developed step by step by remaining truthful to its niche approach and growing its market share versus TAROM, but the mushrooming LCCs are now forcing the carrier to rethink its model and branch out with longer range routes and higher capacity aircraft.