Air Service One – Bitesize Analysis of the Day – 4th December 2025 – Airlines in Romainia 2015-2025

Romania’s airports welcomed almost 26 million passengers in 2024, 12% more than in 2019. Bucharest’s main airport accounted for almost 16 million of those passengers. Demand is up a further 9% in the first nine months of 2025.

According to AIR SERVICE ONE analysis of Cirium schedules data, Wizz Air was already the leading airline in the country in 2015, around 30% bigger than flag-carrier TAROM. A decade later Wizz Air is almost five times bigger than TAROM in Romania, with Ryanair now the country’s second biggest carrier. These three carriers currently account for over 70% of seat capacity at Romania’s airports.

Before it ceased operations in September 2022, Blue Air had been Romania’s second biggest carrier.

Looking at just 2025 data, the fourth biggest airline in Romania is now HiSky Europe, followed by Lufthansa, AnimaWings, Turkish Airlines and Austrian Airlines.

Compared with 2019, overall seat capacity in 2025 is up 23%. Wizz Air has increased capacity by 61% and Ryanair by 72%. However, Lufthansa’s capacity is down 18% and TAROM’s is down 27%. It is worth noting that easyJet does not currently serve Romania.

The country has relatively few inter-continental services. The only scheduled connection to North America is with HiSky Europe which offers a low frequency year-round service between Bucharest and New York JFK using an Airbus A330-200. In addition, a Chicago service is set to start next summer. Of the three global US carriers, Delta Air Lines served Bucharest from JFK between June 2007 and September 2009.

Qatar Airways serves Bucharest from Doha (2-daily this winter) and Etihad plans to start Abu Dhabi service from mid-March 2026, having started flights to Prague and Warsaw in 2025. Although Emirates does not serve Bucharest, flydubai does (3-daily). Wizz Air also offers daily flights to Dubai from Bucharest while flydubai has 2-weekly service from Dubai to Iasi Airport.