The Henri Coanda International Airport in Romania, as well as the Baneasa Aurel Vlaicu International Airport, have revealed that they are fully prepared to embrace Air Schengen.
According to recent statements made by the two airports, they are ready to operate on separate flows for Schengen and non-Schengen.
The confirmation came through a press release that was specially released by the National Company (CNAB) of Bucharest.
The press release
It was disclosed in the statement that two thirds of overall international travelers make their way to and from various destinations located in the Schengen area.
On this note, the airports in Romania have been making preparations for the past couple of years, which were completed at the end of 2022.
However, they were unable to embrace Air Schengen at the time due to the unfavorable decision taken by the JAI Council, thereby preventing them from operating at the time.
CNAB further added that a significant portion of the terminal infrastructure at the Henri Coanda airport was put into operation back in 2011.
It has been specifically designed to cater to the Schengen and non-Schengen systems since then, with the CNAB having to make special efforts to process passenger traffic.
The organization further disclosed that this was particularly difficult, given that the number of travelers has doubled in the last 11 years.
Schengen
From the month of March 2024, Bulgaria and Romania will be permitted to join areas within the Schengen Zone partially.
Consequently, the zone can easily be accessed by sea and air, following an agreement made between the two countries and Austria.
The proposal for this initiative was proposed by Austria itself, which is titled Air Schengen.
It was further decided by the Council of the European Union that the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen Zone by land will not be decided at the moment.
It has postponed this relevant decision to the 31st of March when the sea and air border controls are going to be lifted.
Soon after noting the profound impact of coronavirus-related restrictions, the government authorities decided that air traffic in Romania has been showing consistent improvement.
In the previous year, CNAB itself revealed that traffic at the two airports that serve Otopeni, Baneasa, and Bucharest crossed 8.4 million passengers in the first seven months of 2023 alone.
CNAB
Back in 2022, CNAB further revealed that the Henri Coanda International Airport in Romania and the Baneasa Aurel Vlaicu International Airport combined registered around 12,610,247 passengers.
This figure accounted for an increase of 82.2% as compared to the figures recorded in the previous year.
Moreover, the total number of aircraft movements recorded at the time was 120,745, which was a 30.7% surge in comparison to 2021.
CNAB had previously indicated that the figures for 2022 had been close to approaching the peak that the country had back in 2019 when the total number of passengers was 14.8 million.
Meanwhile, aircraft movements were also quickly closing in on the figures of 2019, when the total registered was 145,002.
