While it issued a release about the cancelation of the flights from Iasi, Tarom did not make any official announcement about the other flights and did not return ZF’s calls for comment on the issue, either.
“Tarom cancelled the international Cluj-Vienna-Cluj flight offered five times a week, Monday to Friday, starting with summer 2017 schedule (March 26 – October 28, 2017). It also reduced the number of flights on the domestic Cluj-Bucharest-Cluj route, by five flights per week Monday to Friday starting with the summer schedule,” Sorin Costas, head of the marketing department of the Avram Iancu Cluj International Airport, the second largest in the country by passenger numbers, told ZF.
Tarom’s decision to reduce the number of flights on the Cluj-Bucharest-Cluj route came after the introduction of flights on this route by low-cost airlines Blue Air and Wizz Air. Tarom carries about 400,000 to 500,000 people on domestic routes every year, according to ZF’s estimates.
The airline also reduced the number of flights on the Timisoara-Bucharest-Timisoara route, where its rival is low-cost carrier Ryanair.
“Tarom had 26 flights to Bucharest a week in its 2016-2017 winter schedule from the Timisoara International Airport and in the summer schedule has 19 flights in all,” Nicoleta Trifan, spokesperson for the Timisoara International Airport, the third largest in the country by passenger numbers, told ZF.
“The current schedule no longer includes ROT 609/610 Bucharest-Timisoara-Bucharest (this was a daily flight in the winter schedule and had been offered for at least ten years). The only destination Tarom offers from the Timisoara International Airport is Bucharest Otopeni.”
Tarom therefore dropped the 9.15 p.m. flight taking off from Bucharest for Timisoara. The aircraft stayed in Timisoara overnight and left for Bucharest the following morning at 6 a.m. Ryanair, too, is offering flights to Bucharest at about 6 a.m. from Timisoara.
Tarom also operates from Bucharest and Sibiu. The representatives of the Sibiu airport said it only offers the Sibiu-Munich route, six flights a week, Monday to Saturday, which remained unchanged. On the other hand, the representatives of the airport in Bucharest did not return ZF’s calls for comment on the changes of Tarom’s flight schedule by press time. Tarom officials did not provide any comment to ZF on the reasons why the reduction in the number of flights, either.
Tarom had a monopoly on domestic routes until 2015, when Blue Air introduced the Bucharest-Iasi flight. Tarom will be the only operator on domestic routes only for the Bucharest-Satu Mare and Bucharest-Suceava as of mid this year.
On March 17, Tarom issued a news release saying it dropped a number of international flights from the Iasi airport, without specifying which ones and for how long. Tarom officials said the decision was due to the two Airbus A310 aircraft being taken out of service in October, as decided by the then management.
The officials of the Iasi airport said the airline dropped the flights to Munich, Rome, Madrid and Turin. While the Iasi airport has the Rome and Turin destinations covered, the city had no more flights to Madrid and Munich. Blue Air quickly stepped up to the plate and announced it would introduce flights to Munich on June 15.
Tarom now says it changed its mind and would start offering again the flights it had announced would cancel.
“In a conversation with Tarom yesterday we got the following information: the Iasi-Madrid route will not be taken off the flight schedule so the airline will have one flight a week in April and will return to two flights per week as of June. Turin, another route announced as cancelled will remain,” Iasi airport officials told ZF.
“Rome and Bologna (currently cancelled) may very well be put back in the schedule as of September. But these two routes are also served by Wizz Air and Blue Air.”
Iasi-Madrid shows as served by two flights a week in April 17-23, but the officials of the airport said the summer schedule was not ready and airlines were still working on it.
Tarom in February started the necessary steps to lease two aircraft and is now evaluating bids, according to a document on the Transport Ministry website, which does not provide any additional information, however.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)