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The TAROM airline will overcome this, the Government supports it and, if the restructuring plan is observed, somewhere within 4-5 years it will become profitable, the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communications Lucian Bode said on Tuesday.
"We have adopted financial support measures for the recovery of TAROM. (...) TAROM has entered this health crisis already in a bad shape, it was like a worse case scenario. You know very well that the entire airline sector is severely affected, with revenues having decreased by more than 90-95pct, but our concern was to support, the same as the other states, our national operator TAROM, first of all, with that rescue aid that was accessed, with that restructuring aid, with that aid meant to compensate for COVID generated loses. We have, of course, requested an amount and notified the European Commission and received approval for the amounts you already know. Our next concern is to bring this restructuring plan to a good end, at all levels, including when it comes to human resources. We have already started this process," Bode said at a news conference.
According to him, over 100 employees of the company have already accessed the option of voluntary departures, receiving between 6 and 8 average salaries in compensation.
In terms of fleet, TAROM will have 23 aircraft by the end of next year - nine new ATRs, four Airbuses and ten Boeings.
The Minister added that in 4-5 years the TAROM company should become profitable.
"We set out to comply with this plan, with all its stages - fleet renewal, commercial optimization, organizational efficiency, fuel cost optimization - and somewhere within 4-5 years TAROM should become profitable, while considering, of course, at the same time, everything that happens in the airline sector all over the world. Because it is not TAROM's fault that, for instance, the decision was made yesterday in the National Committee for Emergency Situations to come up with new restrictions for certain countries. Flights are not suspended, but those who intend to travel to Romania know that if I they come from Italy, for instance, they need to be quarantined for 14 days and then we tried to adjust both internally and externally, so as to produce as little as possible so that we can overcome this period's difficulties," he added.
