Anybody wanting to fly directly from Brno to Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Brussels or Lvov will have to wait a few weeks longer than expected. New routes have been delayed.

The South Moravian Region authority had hoped that the new routes would be included in the summer flight schedule commencing at the end of March. So far, however, it has not been possible to resolve all the details with Blue Air, the Romanian company who will fly the routes.

According to Deputy Governor Romano Hanák (ČSSD), flights to these five European destinations will be delayed until April.

To fly these routes, the South Moravian Region and the carrier have jointly established Blue Air Moravia Transportation. The authority will have a 35% share in the new business but the majority will be owned by the Romanian carrier. Agreeing the new business’s terms and conditions has caused the delay and now they are waiting on completion of a two-sided detailed legal analysis.

“Originally we thought the process would go much faster. But given the fact that it is a project with international participation and public money, it is important that we take the time to agree the terms of the future contract”, said the governor Bohumil Šimek (ANO) explaining the delay.

To date, all ticket pre-sales have been postponed. Originally, they would have been available in the pre-Christmas period.

The authority wants to contribute CZK 60 million this year to the new business. There will be flights to Milan and Brussels three times a week, the other routes will fly twice a week. In addition, summer flights to Split and Dubrovnik will be added.

Already, 460,000 passengers fly annually from Brno Airport. With the new routes passenger traffic will increase to almost 600,000 by 2020. Currently, passengers can only fly from Brno to London and Munich.