TAROM

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TAROM
IATA RO	ICAO ROT	Callsign TAROM
Founded		1920 (as the French-Romanian Company for Air Navigation); 1954 as TAROM
Hubs		Henri Coandă International Airport
Focus cities		Cluj-Napoca International Airport Sibiu Airport
Fleet size		20+2
Destinations		44
Parent company		TAROM S.A.
Headquarters		Bucharest, Romania
Key people		Gabriel Dumitrescu (President and CEO)
Website: http://www.tarom.ro

TAROM is the flag carrier airline of Romania. Its main base is the Henri Coandă International Airport in Bucharest (formerly Otopeni airport). The airline operates scheduled domestic services and international services to destinations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. 91% of it is owned by the Romanian Government (Ministry of Transport, Constructions and Tourism of Romania). The brand name TAROM is an acronym for Transporturile Aeriene ROMâne (Romanian Air Transport).

Contents 1 History 1.1 The beginnings 1.2 Post WW2 1.3 The 1990s 1.4 Today 2 Destinations 3 Fleet 3.1 Retired fleet 3.2 Maintenance 4 Alliances 5 Trivia 6 Incidents and accidents 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] History

[edit] The beginnings

TAROM was founded in 1920 under the name CFRNA - (French-Romanian Company for Air Navigation). The airline used French-built Potez aircraft for its passenger / mail service between Paris and Bucharest via several cities in Central Europe.

In 1925, the city of Galaţi became the first destination in Romania served by regular flights. In 1926 the airline changed its name to CIDNA (The International Air Navigation Company). In 1930, the company adopted the name LARES (Liniile Aeriene Române Exploatate de Stat) while 1937 saw the merger of LARES with its competitor SARTA (Societatea Română de Transporturi Aeriene).

[edit] Post WW2

After World War II, when the Soviet Union had extended its influence across Eastern Europe, the airline TARS (Transporturi Aeriene Româno-Sovietice) was established on 8 August 1945, jointly-owned by the governments of Romania and the Soviet Union. Domestic operations were started from Bucharest (Baneasa Airport) on 1 February 1946. The company's Soviet share was purchased by Romania and, on 18 September 1954, the airline adopted the name of TAROM - (Transporturi Aeriene Române - Romanian Air Transport).

By 1960, TAROM was flying to a dozen cities across Europe. 1966 saw the operation of its first trans-Atlantic flight. On May 14, 1974, it launched a regular service to New York City - (JFK International Airport).

Being part of the group of the airlines belonging to Soviet Bloc states, TAROM operated Soviet-design Li-2, Ilyushin Il-14, Ilyushin Il-18, Ilyushin Il-62, Antonov An-24, and Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft. An exception was made when, in 1974, TAROM acquired Boeing 707 aircraft for its long haul operations, and British Aircraft BAC One Eleven in 1968 for European and Middle East destinations. In 1978 a contract was signed with the UK to manufacture the BAC One Eleven near Bucharest. Meantime the 707 and IL62 long range aircraft were operating New-York (via Amsterdam, later London and finally Vienna), Abu-Dhabi-Bangkok-Singapour, and Karachi-Beijing. Tarom was the only eastern airline to operate flights to Tel-Aviv, and El-Al landed at Bucharest and Constanta airports on many occasions.

[edit] The 1990s

It was only after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 that the airline was able to acquire Western-built jets. It has also introduced a frequent flyer programme Smart Miles and is under contract with Schabak and Wooster Plastic Planes to make their model airplanes.

By 1993, TAROM had introduced long haul flights to Montreal and Bangkok, using Ilyushin IL-62 and Airbus A310 aircraft. During the 1990s, TAROM replaced its long-haul fleet of Boeing 707s and IL-62s with three new A310 jets. In 2001 the airline cancelled its non-profitable long haul services to Bangkok and Montreal and also terminated services to its remaining intercontinental destinations of Beijing (in 2003), Chicago (in 2002), and New York City (in 2003).^{[citation needed]}

TAROM terminated loss-making domestic services to Craiova, Tulcea, Caransebeş, and Constanţa) and focused its activity on service to key destinations in Europe and the Middle East. The strategy has succeeded, and 2004 was the first profitable year of the last decade.

[edit] Today

TAROM is recovering from a difficult period that began in the 1990s, when losses of up to $68 million a year were registered, caused by serving unprofitable routes. At the beginning of the new millennium, the airline initiated a program that was aimed at restoring profitability. This was achieved by terminating loss-making intercontinental services.

TAROM has decided to focus its operations on Bucharest (Henri Coandă International Airport) (OTP) and Cluj-Napoca International Airport (CLJ). Code-share arrangements with foreign partner airlines are in place for several international routes. To meet competition from Carpatair, which uses the major city of Timişoara in Western Romania as its hub city, TAROM has initiated direct international flights from Sibiu, Cluj-Napoca and Iaşi (in codeshare with Austrian). In June 2005 it was announced as one of the four future associate members of Skyteam Alliance, due to join by 2006. A fleet update program started the same year (2006) with the acquisition of the first two Airbus A318 (from a total of four ordered).

In February 2007, TAROM announced it would restart its long haul operations, by leasing 2-4 A343/A333 or B772/B763 [1] and by re-introducing the 2 Airbus A310 into service.

[edit] Destinations

Main article: TAROM destinations

[edit] Fleet

The TAROM fleet consists of the following aircraft as of December 2006 ^[1]

TAROM Fleet

Aircraft	Total	Passengers (Business/Economy)	Routes	Notes
Airbus A310-300	2	212(20/192)	Former long haul	Grounded since December 2003 Possible re-entry into service: Fall 2007 [2]
Airbus A318	2 (2 orders)	113(14/99) 120	Europe
Boeing 737-300	5	110(26/84) 124(10/114)	Domestic, Europe, Africa
Boeing 737-700	4	116(14/102)	Europe, Middle East
ATR 42-500	7	48(10/38)	Domestic & short haul international routes

In November and December of 2006, Tarom took delivery of its first two Airbus A318-111 (YR-ASA and YR-ASB), becoming only the second commercial operator of this type of aircraft in Europe. The aircraft are being used on routes from Bucharest to Brussels, Frankfurt, Larnaca, Munich and Tel Aviv ^[3].

[edit] Retired fleet

• Boeing 737-300
• Boeing 737-500
• ATR 42-300
• DC-10
• Ilyushin Il-62
• BAC One-Eleven
• ROMBAC 1-11
• Ilyushin Il-18
• Tupolev Tu-154
• Antonov An-24
• Boeing 707
• Ilyushin Il-14

[edit] Maintenance

TAROM - Technical Division is an aircraft maintenance provider. It employs 800 staff and specializes in maintaining ATR, Boeing 737 series, Airbus A310 and A320 aircraft. ^[4] Other maintenance providers in Romania are Aerostar SA in Bacău and Romaero located at Băneasa Airport, Bucharest.

[edit] Alliances

In 2006 TAROM was scheduled to join SkyTeam as an associate member (sponsored by Alitalia), but the entry into the alliance is postponed until at least 2007.

[edit] Trivia

• The TAROM logo, representing a swallow in flight, has been used on all TAROM aircraft since 1954.

• All registered aircraft in TAROM fleet receive a "name" which is a Romanian toponym. For instance, the names of the ATR aircraft in the fleet are related to the rivers of Romania (YR-ATD "Criş", YR-ATF "Argeş"), the Boeing aircraft bear names of Romanian cities (YR-BGA "Alba Iulia"), and the former Airbus long-haul aircraft bear Romanian historical province names (YR-LCA "Transilvania", YR-LCB "Moldova" and YR-LCC "Muntenia").The new Airbus A318 bear names of Romanian aviation pioneers (YR-ASA "Aurel Vlaicu" and YR-ASB "Traian Vuia")^[5]

• The livery (introduced in early 1990s on the Airbus A310 aircraft) is an eurowhite scheme with the titles and the vertical tail painted in dark blue.

• In the 1970s livery the logo on the tail was painted in red, with a red strip alongside the fuselage at the windows level.

[edit] Incidents and accidents

The most serious accident in TAROM history occurred on 31 March 1995 when an Airbus A310-324 (YR-LCC) - operating a Bucharest to Brussels service - crashed soon after the take-off, killing all people onboard. See Tarom Flight 371. Several other TAROM incidents, some with fatalities, are recorded by the Aircraft Crash Record Office [2]

[edit] See also

• Aviation in Romania
• Transport in Romania

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• TAROM website
• Photos