Bratislava‘s M.R. Štefánik Airport (BTS) is set to announce the launching of a new route to a German city.
“In the next few weeks, we‘d like to announce the opening of a new flight route to a very significant western European city that will be key for us,” Director Ivan Trhlík told TASR newswire.
The launch of the new service should be significant for Slovakia from the tourist and business viewpoints alike, as German tourists were the third most numerous group of tourists in Slovakia after Czechs and Poles in 2013.
Most recently, the airport launched direct flights to Dubai through the air carrier Fly Dubai. Niki, a subsidiary of Air Berlin, is slated to launch flights to Brussels and Mallorca in April, while Ryanair will set up a base in Bratislava in March and add a new service to Madrid.
In light of the latest new flights, Trhlík is optimistic that the airport may record a rise in passenger numbers by as much as one third next year. “We‘d like to reach the threshold of 2 million travellers very soon,” he said December 10.
This represents something of a turnaround, as BTS this year is poised to continue to see lower passenger numbers on an annual basis as it expects this year to be down 3 percent compared with 2013. The airport handled just 1.37 million passengers in 2013, which was a drop of also 3 percent from 2012.
(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.
