Skift Take
The collapse of airlines and the inability for old-line European carriers to pick up slack will lead to inroads in the region by Turkish Air, which will only improve the Anatolian carrier's position in Europe.
For Prague-based public relations consultant Joe Cook, just finding a flight may prove to be the toughest part of a business trip to Bulgaria later this month.
With Czech Airlines AS cutting services to Sofia, Cook must travel via Vienna or Munich at twice the time and cost. It’s the same story for journeys around much of eastern Europe as cuts in state spending and a dearth of potential investors among larger carriers forces government-owned operators to downsize networks.
“Flight-related costs have increased and one’s choices are reduced,” said Cook, whose firm, Cook Communications, includes coking-coal producer New World Resources Plc and Swedish arms- maker Saab AB as clients. “You start thinking, ‘Do I really need to go there?’”
Europe’s sovereign debt crisis is weighing on carriers from the Balkans to the Baltic as austerity programs coincide with high fuel prices and a European Union clampdown on aid. At the same time, Air France-KLM Group, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and British Airways parent IAG, the region’s three major airlines, are shying away from takeovers to focus on stemming losses at short-haul units swollen by an earlier spate of merger activity.
Eastern Europe’s worst travel crunch to date came with the collapse of Hungarian flag carrier Malev Zrt., which folded after 66 years on Feb. 3 when an EU decision compelling it to repay aid led the state to pull the plug. The move depressed passenger numbers in Budapest by 36 percent and cost 200 jobs.
Lost Hub
With a dozen routes ranging from Belgrade to Damascus still unfilled, “it’s hard to speak about any hub role at present,” according to Mihaly Hardy, a spokesman for the airport. Ryanair Holdings
