Low-cost carriers that operate on the Bulgarian market registered a 50 per cent increase in the number of passengers in the first nine months of 2007, compared to the same period of 2006.

This strongly surpassed the growth marked by traditional flight operators, which was only 11 per cent, Wizz Air’s chief commercial officer John Stevenson said on October 10, as quoted by the web site investor.bg.

The market share of low-cost airlines could reach 20 per cent in Bulgaria by the end of 2007, according to estimates made earlier this year. Low-cost air carriers held only seven or eight per cent of the aviation market in the country at the end of 2006.
Stevenson’s forecast, was that the number of passengers his company would transport in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), where Wizz Air operates, would reach 4.3 million for the entire 2007, after reaching just 2.9 million in 2006.

Wizz Air announced earlier this year it would start flying from Sofia to the German city of Dortmund on October 29 2007. They said the flights would take place twice a week and would increase to three times per week around Christmas 2007.

The initial price offered is 24.99 euro, airport taxes included. Booking is already possible through the website of the company.
Wizz Air said on its web site on October 10 that it had signed a contract with Airbus for an additional order of fifty A320 aircraft and 25 options increasing its total orders to 107 aircrafts. The new order followed Wizz Air’s existing A320 order, addressed its capacity requirements until 2014 and is the largest Airbus fleet order in the CEE region.

Stevenson said in Sofia he hoped that the purchase of new aircrafts would not make fares more expensive, as with the bigger jets they would be buying, Wizz Air would have the opportunity to reduce the flight cost per passenger.