Bacău International Airport

George Enescu International Airport (IATA: BCM, ICAO: LRBC) is an airport located in Bacău, Romania. Named after the Romanian composer George Enescu, it serves as a focus city of the low-cost airline Blue Air. Bacău Airport shares its runway with RoAF 95th Air Base, and Aerostar, a major Romanian aerospace and defence company.

History

Bacău Airport opened for passenger service in 1946. A modern terminal building with a control tower began construction in 1970, and was completed in 1971.^[4] In 1975, it received international status. A 2005 renovation/expansion remodeled the terminal building.

In 2009, Bacău Airport became the first Romanian airport to be privately administered by a non governmental company. BlueAero, its administrator, was 100% owned by the fully private airline Blue Air. The new company that took over the airport is nowadays the main operator. Other airlines that operated here were TAROM, that withdraw its flights, and Carpatair, that canceled all its scheduled flights. When Blue Air was sold because its parent company`s holding went into bankruptcy, the airport was returned to the local government administration. The modernization promised in the takeover contract was completed to a less than 10% status due to financial problems in the holding.

In February 2014, the new administration, a 50-50 joint venture between the city and county government administrators, started a new modernization program.^[4] The project, planned to be completed in 2017, involves the construction of a passenger terminal with a processing capacity of 300 passengers per hour, a control tower, a parking area, and an intermodal bus terminal, as well as the refurbishment of the runway.^[5]

Military usage

The airport is home to the Romanian Air Force 95th Air Base, with one fighter regiment (operating MiG-21 LanceR) and a helicopter regiment (operating IAR-330L). The base is also home to the 250th training regiment.

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations
Aegean Airlines	Seasonal charter: Rhodes
Blue Air	Bergamo, Bologna, Brussels, Dublin, Liverpool, London-Luton, Madrid, Rome-Fiumicino, Stuttgart (begins 2 June 2016), Turin Seasonal: Beauvais, Catania Seasonal charter: Antalya

Statistics

Year	Passengers^[2]	Compared to Previous Year
2003	21,020	66.2%
2004	27,574	31.2%
2005	36,261	31.5%
2006	40,601	12%
2007	112,854	178%
2008	116,492	3.2%
2009	195,772	68%
2010	240,735	23%
2011	336,961	40%
2012	393,352	16.7%
2013	307,488	21.8%
2014	313,376	1.9%
2015	364,492	16.3%

**Busiest routes at Bacău International**
City	Airport(s)	Weekly Departures (April 2016)^[6]^[7]	Airlines
Rome	Fiumicino Airport	7	Blue Air
London	Luton Airport	6	Blue Air
Turin	Cuneo International Airport	4	Blue Air
Bologna	Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport	3	Blue Air
Brussels	Brussels Airport	2	Blue Air
Milan	Il Caravaggio International Airport	3	Blue Air
Dublin	Dublin Airport	2	Blue Air
Liverpool	Liverpool John Lennon Airport	2	Blue Air

Ground transportation

The airport is located 5 km (3.1 mi) south^[1] of Bacău, accessible by taxi. The local bus station is located 600 m (2,000 ft) from the terminal.

References

1 2 EAD Basic
1 2 European Airport Traffic Trends at anna.aero
↑ Press release for 2013 (Romanian)
1 2 Bacău Airport Project
↑ Contract de proiectare pentru modernizări la aeroportului din Bacău at zf.ro (Romanian)
↑ Bacău Airport flight departures
↑ Bacău Airport flight arrivals

External links

Airports in Romania

Major international	Bucharest-Henri Coandă

Minor international	Bacău Cluj-Napoca Constanța Craiova Iași Sibiu Suceava Târgu Mureș Timișoara

Domestic	Baia Mare Oradea Satu Mare

Unscheduled	Arad Bucharest-Aurel Vlaicu Caransebeș Tulcea

Under construction	Brașov

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