1. Reorganization of the taxi system at Henri Coanda airport
The largest airport in Romania, Henri Coanda (Otopeni), changed its taxi organization system in February this year, offering access to taxis ordered at the regular fee of RON1.39 per km, which pull up right in front of the arrivals terminal.
The system was changed after an incident in which a Japanese female student was killed in August 2012 by a young man who had approached her at the Otopeni airport, offering to help her find a taxi.
After that incident, Ziarul Financiar wrote over 20 articles drawing attention to the poor organization of the taxi system, with passengers arriving in Bucharest being forced to carry their luggage to the street in order to find a taxi that charges RON1.39 per km, the regular fee, instead of the more expensive taxis lined up just outside the airport.
2. The most tragic traffic accident involving Romanian tourists
A bus carrying Romanian tourists on a trip organized by travel agency Mareea Comtur, collapsed into a precipice in Montenegro in June. 18 Romanians lost their life and another 29 were injured. The bus had been rented out from Gregory Tour, a Romanian company that also provided the drivers for the Montenegro circuit. A check run at the time by the National Tourism Authority found that the travel license of one of the Mareea agency’s offices had expired and the company was sanctioned. Montenegrin authorities found that the Romanian bus was travelling at a speed of 80 km per hour, according to data recorded by the tachograph. This was twice the maximum speed limit for that section of the road.
3. Sale of low-cost airline Blue Air
Airline Blue Air was bought in May from Nelu Iordache by four Romanian shareholders, who set up the company Blue Air-Airline Management Solutions. The transaction amounted to EUR30 million. The new owners are Cristian Rada (33%), Marius Mihail Puiu (33%), Tudor Zamfir Constantinescu (17%) and Luciana Paunescu (17%).
Blue Air is the second-largest low cost operator in Romania, with 1.5 million passengers.
4. Constanta becomes an embarking port for Romanian tourists going on cruises
The port of Constanta has become an embarking port for ships of MSC Cruises, one of the largest cruise lines in Europe, with 1.4 million passengers last year. The company started this autumn to operate cruises departing from Constanta, on a route that includes six destinations, apart from Constanta.
Up to this change, the port of Constanta, which has this year been visited by 59 cruise ships with almost 40,000 passengers on board, was just a port of call on the route of cruise ships.
5. Change at the top of Tarom
The Romanian Transport Ministry ousted the entire Board of Directors of Romania’s state-run airline Tarom following the conflict between the members of the Board of Directors and the company’s CEO, Belgian Christian Edouard Heinzmann.
The new Board of Directors now includes Dante Stein, son of the former owner of AutoItalia company, Manuel Donescu – secretary of state in the Transport Ministry, Florin Luca – banking strategy consultant, Bogdan Speteanu – general manager of BCR Leasing, and Razvan Filipescu – president of the National Tourism Authority.
6. George Enescu classical music festival attracted 20,000 foreigners
“George Enescu” festival was held in September – the leading cultural event of the year in Romania, with performances from 1,500 Romanian artists and 3,000 foreign ones in Bucharest, Timisoara, Iasi and other cities across Romania. 40,000 individual tickets were sold, half of them to foreigners. The organization of the festival cost EUR9 million, according to the latest information available.
7. First international conference to promote Romania
The Romanian Tourism Ministry, run by Maria Grapini, allocated RON450,000 (EUR100,000) from the state budget and from European funds to organize the first international conference to promote Romania (July 3) and an info trip to Romanian sights (July 3-7) – the Danube Delta, Sinaia, Brasov, Sibiu, Sighisoara, Turda for Romanian and foreign journalists, ambassadors, representatives of travel agencies and from the World Tourism Organization. This event was aimed at boosting the number of tourists to Romania and increasing the ratio of tourism to Romania’s GDP. This year also saw the launch of the second part of the promotional documentary Wild Carpathia.
8. easyJet and Air Serbia introduce flights to Romania
International airport Henri Coanda (Otopeni) has attracted new airlines this year, which will contribute to the revenue rise and to the passenger traffic rise in 2014. This year’s newcomers are Air Serbia and low-cost easyJet.
9. Decision to introduce lump-sum tax as of 2014
A lump-sum tax, which will replace the 16% tax on profit or the 3% tax on turnover charged so far, will be enforced as of January 1, 2014, according to a draft law discussed and approved by the government after a first reading at a meeting in September. The lump-sum tax will apply to a few major categories of services: hotels and pensions, restaurants, bars and coffee shops, beauty parlors and car washes.
10. Change of shareholders at airline Carpatair
Former Romanian pilot Nicolae Petrov, who set up airline Carpatair 13 years ago together with several major foreign businessmen, is now left with just 12.8% in the company (2.8% directly and 10% indirectly through Air Service company). This is half as much as he controlled in the first part of this year. Carpatair, with turnover of EUR55 million, received a EUR5 million capital increase this year. Carpatair’s Swiss majority shareholders were the only ones to come up with money.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)