FlyOne launches six new routes from Chisinau in Moldova; now operates 15 routes with A320s
FlyOne (IATA code 5F) began scheduled services in June 2016 from Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. Moldova is located between northern Romania and south-west Ukraine. The airline has a fleet of two 180-seat A320s, registration ER-00004 and ER-00005 according to planespotters.net. Its Armenian subsidiary, FlyOne Armenia (IATA code 3F) has two further A320s (ER-00006 and ER-00007) and an A319 (ER-00002), some of which are used to operate FlyOne routes from Chisinau.
Six new routes in just two days
Last week saw the airline launch six new routes from Chisinau in just two days:
- 15 June: Amsterdam, 2-weekly, no competition
- 15 June: Düsseldorf, 2-weekly increasing to 3-weekly in peak summer period, versus Air Moldova (2-weekly)
- 15 June: Nice, 2-weekly, no competition
- 15 June: Yerevan, daily, no competition
- 16 June: Barcelona, 2-weekly, versus Wizz Air (2-weekly)
- 16 June: Brussels BRU, 2-weekly, no competition
The airline’s other nine scheduled routes this summer, according to Cirium data are:
- Dublin, 4-weekly
- Frankfurt HHN, 2-weekly
- Istanbul IST, 5-weekly
- Lisbon, 2-weekly
- London LTN, 6-weekly
- Paris CDG, 3-weekly
- Parma, 3-weekly
- Tel Aviv, 4-weekly
- Verona, 3-weekly
That makes a total of 50 weekly departures from Chisinau spread across 15 routes. These flights account for around 25% of all flights from the airport in August. Wizz Air has 61 departing flights and Air Moldova 42. Then comes TAROM and Turkish Airlines, each with 14-weekly flights, and Austrian Airlines and LOT with seven each.
Chisinau Airport handled just under three million passengers in 2019. In January of this year demand was down only 19% compared with 2019, but traffic suffered thereafter due to airspace closures prompted by the Russian invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. As a result, traffic was down 95% in March (versus 2019). In April traffic was down 60%.
