Blue Air is an airline headquartered in Bucharest, with its main hubs at Henri Coand? International Airport and Turin Airport. Since 2016, it has become the largest Romanian airline by scheduled passengers flown. In 2017, Blue Air carried over 5 million passengers, a 40% increase over the 3.6 million passengers flown the previous year. As of May 2017, Blue Air flies to 104 destinations.
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History
Blue Air started operating in December 2004. Blue Air initially operated domestic and international flights, although domestic services were soon discontinued due to low sales and competition from TAROM as well as C?ile Ferate Române, the Romanian rail company. Blue Air resumed domestic operations in 2015 starting with Bucharest-Iasi flights, followed by further routes in 2016.
On 12 April 2013, Blue Air's management announced that the airline was for sale. On the 17 May 2013, the company was purchased by four Romanian shareholders, and BlueAir Transport Aerian SA's flight operations were transferred to Blue Air - Airline Management Solution SRL, a company that bailed the business out with EUR 30 million.
The airline transported 1.5 million passengers in 2014, an increase from the 1.35 million passengers in 2013. In 2015, the airline transported for the first time more than 2 million passengers. With a total of 25 new routes announced for 2016, the airline forecasts carrying close to three million passengers in 2016.
Blue Air became a full member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on 19 January 2016. Furthermore, Blue Air received the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) certification in December 2015, and is a member of the ICH (IATA Clearing House).
In March 2017 Blue Air started a base in Liverpool John Lennon Airport operating to 8 destinations across Europe. Blue Air also created a 'welcome to Liverpool' Livery for their Boeing 737-800 Aircraft (YR-BMH). This aircraft included slogans such as 'Cool city, Warm welcome' and 'Liverpool Music city' to help use the aircraft to promote its new base in Liverpool, England by flying this logo jet across Europe. This aircraft is also the only full special livery aircraft within the Blue Air fleet. In July 2017, Blueair exchanged the aircraft in Larnaca International Airport, Cyprus for a smaller Boeing 737-700 aircraft.
Since November 2017, with the entry into force of the Territorial Continuity in Sardinia, Blue Air connects the Alghero airport with the Rome-Fiumicino Airport, route operated in the past by Alitalia. The airline, following a conference held at Alghero Airport in early November, announced that the Riviera del Corallo became his fourth international base of operations, after those in Torino, Liverpool and Larnaca.
In January 2018, Blue Air launched a new subsidiary in Czech Republic known as Blue Air Moravia. The airline will commence operations in March 2018.
Low-cost airline Blue Air expects a turnover of EUR400 million in 2017 and to carry approximately five million passengers, which translates into an increase of over 35% for both indicators compared with 2016, said the company's general manager Gheorghe Racaru.
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Business trends
Operations
Bases
Blue Air has used Bucharest as its primary hub for most of its history. Initially, the airline's hub was located at Aurel Vlaicu International Airport until the airport became overcrowded and was increasingly surrounded by urban development, thus leading to the airport's closure for commercial airlines in 2012. Officially the airport was not closed, but the operating taxes for airlines were suddenly increased until no airline could afford them. As a result, all airlines moved their operations to Bucharest's largest airport, Henri Coand? International Airport. Blue Air now uses this airport as its primary hub.
The secondary hub is Turin Airport in Italy from November 2014. The total number of destinations to and from Turin are 18, operated with 5 aircraft.
The third operating base for Blue Air is located at Bac?u International Airport. BlueAir Transport Aerian (the original owner) managed to get a concession contract for 50 years of private administration of the airport. BlueAero was the secondary company that held the contract. The airport needed urgent investments which the company promised to complete, but not even 10% of those promised investments were realised in the following two years. Blue Air is now the only airline operating from the airport. TAROM and Carpatair had domestic and international flights from here, but were discontinued.
Blue Air's bases also include Larnaca International Airport (2 aircraft based) in Cyprus, Ia?i International Airport (3 aircraft based), the primary international gateway for the north-eastern part of Romania, serving a catchment area of over 3.7 million people, and Cluj International Airport (2 aircraft based), the second largest airport in Romania.
In March 2017, Blue Air opened its first UK Base at Liverpool John Lennon Airport and based one aircraft there. On 27 April 2017, Blue Air opened its 8th Base at Mihail Kog?lniceanu International Airport and based one aircraft there.
Destinations
Blue Air has been operating for 13 years and now offers flights to 70+ scheduled destinations in Belgium, Cyprus, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Furthermore, under its own brand and with the slogan "Follow your dreams and fly", Blue Air operates charter flights on behalf of leading tour operators and holiday destinations throughout Europe and West Asia, mainly the Mediterranean region.
Starting on 25 October 2015 the company has also inaugurated daily scheduled domestic flights. Daily services are currently being provided between Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Constanta, Iasi, Oradea and Timisoara.
Fleet
As of February 2018, the Blue Air fleet consists of the following aircraft:
Blue Air codeshares with the following airlines:
Accidents and incidents
- On 7 January 2016, a Blue Air Boeing 737-400, registration YR-BAS performing charter flight 0B-9301 from Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport (Romania) to Barcelona (Spain) was scheduled to land at Cluj International Airport (Romania) to pick up several passengers. While landing, with 110 passengers and 6 crew, on Cluj's runway 25 at 08:02L (06:02Z), the plane overran the end of the runway by about 10 meters (32 feet) and came to a stop with all gears on the paved surface of the runway end safety area. No injuries occurred, and the aircraft sustained no damage. The passengers disembarked normally via mobile stairs and were bused to the terminal. Cluj-Napoca International Airport was closed for around 3 hours due to the incident.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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