Tarom posts impressive increase in turnover

TAROM, Romania’s flag carrier, appears to be bucking the negative trend in the airline industry so far this year, and has actually increased its turnover by nearly 25 percent over figures from the same period last year, according to a report in the Ziarul Financiar newspaper. It was revealed that during the first quarter of the year, TAROM had a turnover of more than €56 million, thus representing an increase of 25 percent. What makes this feat especially impressive for TAROM is that it was able to perform so well during the slowest months of the year. Yet this is precisely what airline executives have been expecting. If projections prove to be accurate, TAROM’s annual turnover will stand at €276 million in 2008.

Part of TAROM’s apparent good fortune can be attributed to a rise in passenger traffic of around 27 percent over last year’s figures. Yet one might not be able to notice this by flying on many of TAROM’s flights, as the Romanian flag carrier also increased its capacity following the acquisition of a new Airbus A-310 and an A318-200. This meant that the airline’s load factor actually decreased slightly, from 62 percent to 58 percent.

TAROM currently offers passengers 300 flights per week and the vast majority of these are for destinations within Europe. In fact, fully ten percent of all TAROM flights are between Bucharest and destinations in Spain. The airline also has plans to introduce several new routes, such as flights from the multiethnic Transylvanian city of Cluj (Kolozsvár) to London and Barcelona, as well as from Bucharest to Frankfurt.

www.tarom.ro