Bratislava's M.R. Štefánik Airport (BTS) handled close to 1.67 million passengers in 2010, a fall of 3 percent year-on-year, the TASR newswire reported. "Compared to previous years this is a stable figure. It shows that the market is beginning to stabilise," said BTS board chairman Maroš Jančula.
Six air carriers operated flights from the airport to 42 destinations last year. Ryanair accounted for the largest share of the total, with 1.1 million passengers. London topped the list of destinations with 315,839 passengers.
Twelve charter carriers flew to 39 destinations with the Travel Service agency coming first in terms of carrying the largest number of holiday-makers. July was the busiest month at the airport with 244,500 travellers while December posted the lowest figure with only 83,433 passengers.
Following the introduction of a new air route between Bratislava and Yerevan, the airport will add another new destination soon – the Albanian capital Tirana. The route will be operated by Belle Air two times per week beginning March 29.
A member of Bratislava Airport's board of directors, Juraj Mitka, also told TASR that setting up an air route between Bratislava and Kosovo would be rather problematic because Slovakia has refused to recognise Kosovo, saying "that means getting hold of certain papers is more difficult".
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
