The Marosvásárhely/Târgu Mureș airport will receive RON 5 million (EUR 1.03 million) in aid from the Maros/Mureș County Council, up from RON 4.8 million last year. But the Transylvania airport plans to invest a total of RON 15 million, Drector András Peti says.
As we previously reported, the Transylvania airport of Marosvásárhely closed a decent year in 2019 with 172,000 passengers, and management is now estimating 255,000 passengers for 2020. “Our calculations from last October show that we will likely reach this number this year; however, we didn’t anticipate the appearance of the coronavirus and the consequent drop in passengers. We are already feeling its effects: Fewer passengers are traveling by air, and no one knows what will happen during the year,” Peti told Hungarian newspaper Szekelyhon.
While the airport’s top priority for now is to ensure the safety of passengers and a smooth process of arrivals and departures, the director says they plan to invest RON 15 million (EUR 3.11 million) during the year. Peti plans to equip the airport with new runway lighting to facilitate landings and departures at night and during poor weather conditions; he’s also looking to acquire a new snowblower to speed up the runway clearing process during winter.
After hitting 172,000 passengers last year, the Marosvásárhely airport is entitled to receive aid from the state authority it belongs to – in this case, the Maros County Council. This is the case for every airport that falls below the 700,000-passenger threshold. The airport currently ranks fourth among the eight airports in Transylvania, a list led by the airport in Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca, just 100 kilometers from Marosvásárhely and which saw passenger traffic close to 2 million in 2019.
Peti and his team have a lot of work ahead of them and investments to make if they want to enhance the overall performance and competitiveness of their airport. This is especially true, as Brassó is planning to open its own airport and expects up to 1 million passengers per year.
Title image: Pixabay
