No-frill airline carriers Wizz Air, EasyJet, Germanwings, Aer Lingus and Sky Europe served around 26.5 per cent of passengers carried through the Sofia airport in the first half of 2009, the airport said on its website.

The airport serviced 1.523 million passengers in January to June 2009.

The five low-cost airlines controlled about 20 per cent of the market in 2008 and 12 per cent in the first half of that year, with growth largely driven by new flights by Wizz Air and EasyJet.

Hungarian Wizz Air, tipped as the market leader servicing one domestic and seven international routes, plans to launch a flight to Eindhoven, The Netherlands, from October 2009.

Wizz Air will fly from Bucharest to Catania, Naples and Bologna from September to handle passengers previously serviced by Italian May Air, which sliced 2 per cent of the market in 2008 but lost its licence in July 2009.

Irish Aer Lingus will fly again from Sofia to Dublin in the autumn-winter season using until then the Black Sea Bourgas airport, while Germanwings will service flights to Hamburg from the fall.

The five short-haul carriers posted mixed results for January to June.

While British EasyJet was scooping profits in the period, Slovakian SkyEurope slipped into insolvency and sought bankruptcy protection after losing 27.5 per cent of its passengers by the end of June.

Wizz Air has not published fist-half financial figures yet but said it expected a surge in passenger traffic to 8 million in 2009 from 5.8 million the year before.

Aer Lingus saw a 6.5 per cent drop in passengers in the first six months of 2009, while Germanwings reported a 7.7 per cent decline, after it had scaled down its capacity by almost 10 per cent.

On a global scale, air traffic dwindled by 7.2 per cent in January to June 2009, data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) showed.

International players captured 74 per cent of the Bulgarian aviation market and carried 2.574 million passengers, according to numbers of the Bulgarian Airline Association (ABA).

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Anybody tried Wizz Air from Luton to Varna yet??

Oddy

Hi Oddy

I will be trying the Wizz Air from Varna to Luton and back in April and hence will let you know how the route goes.... but we had some clients that visited us last week and they travelled from Luton to Varna. Their verdict was that the airlines are very good with regards to service and leg room compared to Bulgarian air and BA.

However, when they were travelling from Varna to Luton they were delayed by 3 hours. The reason was obviously the weather in UK.

All in all they were very happy with the airlines and no problems with travelling.

Sima

Thanks Sima

That is just wonderful thanks for taking the time to reply

Oddy