"Fly Niki" to enlarge fleet and introduce flights to Belgrade

- After the crash of Austrian-Slovakian company "SkyEurope", Austrian air transportation company "Fly Niki", owned by "Formula 1" driver Niki Lauda, intends to enlarge the fleet and take over some lines from that airliner, as well as to introduce new ones, among which is flight to Belgrade - the company owner announced.

"Fly Niki" intends to increase the number of airplanes in the fleet from 12 to 16 in 2010. That should enable introduction of flights to new destinations, such as Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia.

As far as Belgrade-Vienna flight is concerned, "Fly Niki" has been trying for a long time to introduce it, but it has not obtained the license yet. This company intends to transport passengers to Belgrade at very low prices, the lowest of which is only about 29 EUR.

Lauda pointed out that "Fly Niki" would increase the number of flights to Frankfurt already in November, and added that the purchase of airplanes would be financed from his own resources.

Company "Fly Niki" is getting profit from the economic crisis because growing number of companies are buying flying tickets of cheaper companies like "Fly Niki" is. During the first half of this year, the profit of "Fly Niki" grew by about 30%, number of passengers was increased by 25%, while the turnover was 20% larger.

Lauda expects 275m EUR worth of turnover and 2.6m passengers in 2009, while the plan for the next year anticipates transportation of 3.8m passengers and realization of about 400m EUR worth of turnover