FlyNiki launches flights to Bulgaria, Wizz Air expands operation

   Low budget carrier FlyNiki will start regular flights from Vienna to Sofia in February 2010, Dnevnik daily said on September 23, quoting information released by the Sofia Airport.

The carrier will fly once a day six times a week, with Saturdays being the sole exception, but the company's website was yet to state the exact schedule and pricing.

FlyNiki is owned by former three-times Formula 1 champion Niki Lauda and it was formed in 2003. In 2008, the company ferried a total of 2.1 million passengers.

Meanwhile, John Stevenson, vice president of Wizz Air has announced that the company will operate four new lines from the Sofia� Airport starting May 22 2010.

Flights from Sofia to Madrid, Paris, Frankfurt and Bologna will be carried out three times a week, with the initial price said to be 33.99 leva, excluding insurance and luggage tax. The company will add one more regular flight to its Sofia - Eindhoven and Sofia – Valencia services, making them three and four times a week, respectively.

Wizz Air is also contemplating on opening a regular flight from Sofia to Bratislava as an alternative to Sofia – Vienna, Dnevnik said.

Hungarian-based Wizz Air is estimated to account for 11 per cent of the total number of airline passengers in Bulgaria, second only to locally-owned Bulgaria Air and ahead of Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and EasyJet. The company ferried a total of 650 000 passengers to and from Bulgaria in 2008 and Stevenson has said that in 2010 the number is expected to increase to 750 000.

FlyNiki and Wizz Air are amongst the several low-budget companies, a list that includes EasyJet and Ryanair, who stand to gain from the vacuum left by collapse of SkyEurope.

    Source: sofiaecho.com