Romanian regional carrier Carpatair is to launch flights from neighbouring Moldova, establishing a new base in the country’s capital city Chișinău. The airline is acquiring a single Boeing 737-300, its first of the kind, and will use the jet to introduce direct links between Chișinău International Airport and the Italian destinations of Bergamo, Bologna, Rome and Venice.
Carpatair will launch twice weekly flights to Bergamo, Rome and Venice from March 25, 2012 with a third weekly rotation being introduced on each of the routes later in the summer: Bergamo between July 12 and September 16; Rome from July 15 to September 16 and Venice from June 4. The twice weekly service to Bologna will operate between July 20 and September 14.
The Romanian carrier already serves Moldova’s main international gateway from its Timişoara base and has actually had a presence in the country since August 1994 when its affiliate carrier Moldavian Airlines was established as the first private airline in the former Soviet state following the country’s independence. Moldavian Airlines currently operates flights from Chișinău to Budapest and Istanbul using a Saab 2000; the link to Hungary in a codeshare arrangement with Carpatair.
The new connections to Italy will be operated in partnership with Moldavian Airlines and executives from Carpatair are currently also working on introducing a codeshare with Alitalia on some of the routes. The new flights are possible following the liberalisation of air services between Moldova and European Union countries and Nicolae Petrov, President, Carpatair, has called on similar agreements being introduced with other states.
“We appreciate the courage which Prime Minister Vlad Filat and his team of negotiators have demonstrated in the liberalisation of the Moldova – EU air transport market. However, the Republic of Moldova needs similar agreements with Russia and Turkey to ensure that the overall decrease of the air ticket prices has enough significance for the air transport market of Moldova,” he said.
In the past year an estimated 183,000 O&D passengers travelled between Moldova and Italy, the second largest international market from the country after Russia, and accounting for 18.9 per cent of the O&D traffic. Local carrier Air Moldova currently has flights from Chișinău to Milan Malpensa and Rome Fiumicino, while Italian operator meridianafly has links to Chișinău from Milan Malpensa and Verona.
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