The Challenge: A regional airport in Northern Europe faced a critical stagnation in passenger growth. Despite serving a prosperous catchment area, the facility relied heavily on a single low-cost carrier and seasonal charter traffic. This dependency created significant commercial risk and limited the region’s economic connectivity. The airport’s management sought to diversify its airline portfolio and secure year-round connections to major European hubs but lacked the strategic roadmap and commercial data to present a compelling business case to target carriers.

How Sartori Helped: Our aviation infrastructure services were engaged to develop a comprehensive route development strategy. We began by performing a detailed leakage analysis, identifying thousands of passengers from the airport’s catchment area who were travelling to rival hubs to fly. Armed with this data, we built specific business cases for three target destinations: London, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. We supported the airport’s commercial team in direct negotiations with legacy carriers, designing a risk-sharing incentive scheme that mitigated the airline’s initial startup costs without violating state aid regulations. Parallel to this, we advised on a terminal reconfiguration plan to segregate passenger flows, allowing for more efficient simultaneous boarding of different aircraft types.

The Result: Within a year of our engagement, the airport secured a new daily frequency to a major Star Alliance hub, instantly connecting the region to a global network. Passenger numbers for the winter season increased by 32%, significantly reducing the airport’s seasonality profile. The new incentive structure we designed has since become the framework for all subsequent airline negotiations, ensuring the airport’s commercial growth remains financially sustainable.