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Blue Air launches Winter 2010/11 flights and appoints UK General Sales Agent

Published: 14 July 2010

Low cost carrier, Blue Air from Romania, which currently operate 13 flights per week from London Luton Airport, is launching its winter flight programme this week.

Blue Air is the largest operator from Bucharest's Baneasa airport and this summer will operate 160 weekly departures across 24 destinations.

Currently with a daily flight from London Luton to Bucharest, three flights per week to the provincial cities of Sibiu and Bacau, the expanding low cost airline is planning to offer all three destinations throughout the coming winter season. Prices start at £17.00 including taxes for a one way flight.

The launch of the winter flights co-incide with the announcement that Airline marketing specialists, Flight Directors has been appointed to promote Blue Air's services in the UK.

Sherif Ussama, CEO of Blue Air said: " We are delighted to follow a successful summer with an extensive programme of flights from London Luton Airport for the winter. We have established an enviable reputation for meeting passengers expectations and becoming their first choice of airline to Romania. Our "Smart Flying" business model attracts many different types of passenger from people flying for the first time, through those returning home to visit friends and relatives to business people who are travelling on our flights on regular basis in increasing numbers."

London Luton Airport is the best way to start a journey to Romania with easy train access, good motorway links and a short distance from check-in to departure gate. Our appointment of Flight Directors is a recognition that we see the UK as an increasingly important market for us and their proven expertise in aggressively generating passenger revenue from a variety of distribution channels will allow us to continue to grow our services from London Luton"

London Luton Airport is the main UK gateway for flights to Romania with over 270,000 passengers travelling from there during 2009, this is 51% of the total air travel market to Romania. (source: London Luton Airport).

Paul Argyle, Managing Director of Flight Directors said: "This is a really exciting opportunity, Blue Air has a great on board product, very competitive prices and an easy to use web site, to these we are going to add a seven days per week UK call centre with both English and Romanian speaking agents, plus a knowledge of the UK travel trade that will encourage more holiday and leisure travellers to use the Blue Air flights. We are already working closely with the dynamic marketing team at London Luton Airport to increase the profile of Blue Air within the Luton catchment area and with the Blue Air development team to improve access for agents via the Blue Air web site."

Notes:
(1) Web Bookings can be made on the easy to use web site: http://www.blueairweb.com .
(2) UK Telephone reservations available Seven days per week, 08:00 to 20:00 UK local times, on 0871 744 0104.
(3) Media enquiries to Paul Argyle on 0871 744 7471 or pargyle@flightdirectors.com

Background:
Blue Air is a Romanian low cost airline, based in Bucharest's Baneasa Airport which was launched in December 2004. It carried 1,720,000 passengers in 2009 and expects to carry over 2,000,000 passengers in 2010. The Blue Air fleet consists of 3 x Boeing 737-300's. 1 x Boeing 737-500, 2 x Boeing 737-400, 5 x Boeing 737-800 and 4 x Saab 340's. During 2010, the fleet will extend to include a further 2 x Boeing 737-800's and 2 Saab 340's. Future aircraft orders have been confirmed for a further 2 x Boeing 737-800's and 3 x Boeing 737-900's.

Blue Air employs more than 820 people and is licensed in accordance with European JAR-FCL1 regulations.

Sherif Ussama, aged 36, has more than 15 years of experience in Aviation. He started his career as a temporary assistant with Saudi Arabian Airlines and over a four year period worked his way up to Sales Executive for the Egypt and Saudi Arabian markets. Subsequently joining Kuwait Airways, Mr Ussama was appointed Head of the Holiday Department and in 2004 moved to Qatar Airways to spearhead their development as the Manager responsible for all Direct Sales and Marketing. In 2008, Mr Ussama moved permanently to Romania initially joining Blue Air as Director of Sales and Marketing with a move to the top job as CEO earlier this year.

Blue Air currently operates flights from seven Romanian cities: Bucharest (Baneasa Airport), Sibiu, Bacau, Timisoara, Constanta ,Cluj-Napoca and Arad. and Suceava . Destinations served include: London Luton Airport, Barcelona,Bologna, Brussels, Catania, Dublin, Florence, Cologne, Larnaca, Lisbon, Madrid, Malaga, Milan, Naples, Nice, Paphos, Paris, Rome, Stuttgart, Thessaloniki, Turin, Valencia, Vienna and Warsaw.

Blue Air has a frequent flyer programme called "Smart Money" for regular travellers and uses the world-leading Navitaire low cost airline reservations system.