is the
Flag Carrier Airline of
Romania . Its main base is
Henri Coandă International Airport ,
Bucharest . The airline operates scheduled domestic services and international services to
Europe and the
Middle East . It is owned (91%) by the Romanian state (Ministry of Transportation). The name TAROM is an
Acronym for '''T'''ransporturile '''A'''eriene '''ROM'''âne (Romanian Air Transport).
Tarom traces its origins to the year
1920 when the ''
French-Romanian Company For Air Navigation '', (CFRNA) was formed. The airline used
French built
Potez planes to carry passengers and mail, from
Paris to
Bucharest , stopping in
European cities en route.
In
1925 , the city of
Galati became the first domestic Romanian destination. In
1926 , the airline changed its name to ''
The International Air Navigation Company '', (CIDNA). In
1930 it changed its name to
LARES (''Liniile Aeriene Române Exploatate de Stat''), and in
1937 , ''LARES'' was merged with competitor
SARTA (''Societatea Română de Transporturi Aeriene'').
It was established on
8 August 1945 as a joint Romanian-Soviet undertaking named ''TARS'' (Transporturi Aeriene Romano-Sovietice) and started operations on
1 February 1946 . The Soviet share was purchased by Romania and the airline renamed on
September 18 1954 . The airline became known as ''Tarom'' (ransporturi '''A'''eriene '''ROM'''âne, meaning Romanian Air Transport). By
1960 Tarom was flying to European capitals, and in
1966 operated its first trans-
Atlantic flight. By
1974 , Tarom began services to
JFK International Airport in
New York . It also reached
Australia , flying to
Sydney , via
Calcutta .
During the
1980s , Tarom, an
Eastern Bloc airline, was forced to buy
Russian aircraft exclusively. However, after the collapse of the
Soviet Union in
1991 , Tarom has re-introduced western built jets to their fleet. It also has a frequent flyer programme
Smart Miles and is under contract with
Schabak and
Wooster Plastic Planes to make their
Model Airplanes .
By
1993 Tarom introduced long haul flights to
Montreal and
Bangkok , using
IL-62 and
A310 aircraft. During the 1990s, Tarom replaced its long-haul fleet composed of
Boeing 707 and
Il-62 with their new
A310 . At the beginning of 2000, Tarom decided to begin the cancellation of its non-profitable routes (Bangkok, 22 February 2001, Montreal 29 November 2001) and later the airline stopped their most important long-range flights (Beijing, 15 May 2003, Chicago, 3 October 2002 and New York, 19 November 2003).
TAROM is recovering from a difficult period at the beginning of the 90s, when it registered $68 million a year losses due to non-profitable routes. At the beginning of the 2000s the company began a program to make the company profitable. TAROM stopped long-haul routes to
Chicago ,
Montreal ,
Bangkok ,
Beijing ,
New York and cancelled the domestic non-sustainable regular flights (
Craiova ,
Tulcea ,
Caransebeş ,
Constanţa ) and focused on European and Middle East destinations. The new strategy succeeded, 2004 being the first profitable year in the last decade. Today, TAROM is among the few state-owned profitable airlines in
Eastern Europe .
Tarom has decided to focus on
Henri Coandă International Airport (OTP) and
Cluj-Napoca International Airport (CLJ). Recently TAROM offers only domestic flights (from Bucharest OTP) to
Traian Vuia International Airport (TSR) although it also codeshares international flights from Alitalia and Austrian. TAROM also introduced new international flights to
Sibiu International Airport .
In June 2005 it was announced as one of the four future associate members of
Skyteam Alliance , due to join by
2006 .
For more information, see:
The Tarom active fleet consists of the following aircraft (at December 2005):
- 5 Boeing 737-300 - (YR-BGA, YR-BGB, YR-BGC, YR-BGD, YR-BGE)
- 4 Boeing 737-700 - (YR-BGF, YR-BGG, YR-BGH, YR-BGI)
- 7 ATR 42 -500 - (YR-ATA, YR-ATB, YR-ATC, YR-ATD, YR-ATE, YR-ATF, YR-ATG)
The airline has also 4
Airbus A318 on order (delivery 2006, 2007)
The worst disaster in
TAROM history occurred on
March 31 ,
1995 when an
Airbus A310 -324 (YR-LCC) operating on Bucharest - Brussels route crashed soon after take-off, killing all onboard. See
Tarom Flight 371 .
Several other TAROM incidents, some with fatalities, are recorded by the Aircraft Crash Record Office
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Tarom Romanian Air Transport has been selected to join Sky Team in 2006. At that time, passengers will be able to travel to more than 700 destinations through the alliance.
