Premium
Romania's TAROM national air carrier plans to reconnect the western part of the country with Chisinau on Moldova and also Constanta in the east, and there are prospects for flights to New York and Beijing, TAROM Director General Wolff Werner-Wilhelm told AGERPRES on Sunday.
Asked whether there are chances of opening routes to New York and Beijing, as reported lately and as mentioned in the Romanian Government's programme, Wolff replied: "Work is being done on them."
"It is somewhere in the future," he added.
About the launch of new routes, Wolff told a news conference in the eastern city of Iasi marking the inauguration of the Iasi-Timisoara route, that the flights TAROM is considering are Constanta - Timisoara, maybe even Constanta - Oradea, as well as Iasi - Cluj-Napoca.
"We want to connect Constanta to the western part of the country, so there is Constanta - Timisoara, maybe even Oradea, because the summer season is about to begin. Also, we want to link Chisinau to Timisoara and there is a plan that I have reiterated today with the commercial director. Iasi-Cluj Napoca will be the next option, because after we receive the [new] aircraft we want to take this option again. The flight will launch this year, but probably in the winter season," said Wolff.
The Iasi - Cluj-Napoca flight will also be operated on ATR aircraft.
Asked if TAROM will discard some flights, the general manager said no.
"No. We're opening new ones," he said.
Wolff admitted that, on average, one or at most two aircraft per day is grounded for maintenance and various capital repairs.
Under a revised 2018-2020 Governance Programme released at the end of this January, the urgent renewal of the TAROM fleet by purchasing under lease 27 modern aircraft and opening new zonal or long-haul routes to America or Asia are among the measures designed to bring the company back to the "ambassadors of Romania" elite.
TAROM was established in 1954 and it operates under the authority of the Ministry of Transport. It joined the SkyTeam Alliance in June 2010, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in 1993, and the European Airlines Association (AEA) in 2000.
