Romania Tourism Min Lobbies At Austrian Niki Lauda For Future Vienna-Constanta Flight

Fly Niki operates six low cost flights weekly on the route Bucharest-Vienna.

Udrea met Tuesday in capital city Bucharest with Lauda, former three-time Formula One World Champion.

"Lauda's presence in Bucharest is a great opportunity to promote Bucharest and Romania. I hope this route (Vienna-Bucharest, e.n.) is only the beginning of a beautiful partnership to further include Constanta in the flight schedule of Fly Niki for a direct link with Vienna," Udrea said.

The minister added she is trying to seize this opportunity involving Niki Lauda and his airline in order to lure Austrian tourists not only to Bucharest, but also on the Black Sea resorts and other places in Romania.

Lauda, in turn, said he offered personally to use his airliner to promote Bucharest and Romania in Vienna and Austria, adding that the six weekly flights have an "acceptable" load factor and that it will take approximately one year to consolidate the future Vienna-Constanta route.

Fly Niki, established in 2003, reported a turnover of EUR275 million in 2009 and carried 2.6 million passengers. The company is 50.1% owned by Niki Lauda and 49.9% owned by German airliner Air Berlin.

Austrian businessman Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda is a former Formula 1 racing driver and three-time F1 World Champion in 1975, 1977 and 1984.

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