Airport of the Day (3 July 2021): Oradea in Romania

Situated in north-west Romania, close to the border with Hungary, Oradea International Airport handled over 220,00 passengers in 2018, its busiest year to date. However, passenger numbers fell to just 96,000 in 2019 as Ryanair, which had started serving the airport in March 2017, suspended services on four routes in October 2018. In addition, Blue Air withdrew its Bucharest service, leaving just TAROM operating a daily service to the Romanian capital.

Ryanair returns to boost traffic

On 3 July, Ryanair resumed service to Oradea from its London STN, Milan BGY and Weeze bases. Two days earlier it had started a new route to Oradea from its base in Bologna. All four routes will be served 2-weekly. This makes Ryanair the leading airline at the airport in terms of weekly seat capacity.

Although TAROM has 11-weekly flights to Bucharest, it uses smaller 72-seat ATR 72s, so its total seat capacity offering is much lower. Meanwhile, Blue Air is resuming service to Bucharest from 25 July with a 2-weekly service (Thursdays and Sundays) according to its on-line booking tool.

In addition to these scheduled services, the airport also welcomes a number of charter flights during the summer season, primarily to destinations in Egypt and Turkey.