TAROM (RO, Bucharest Henri Coanda) interim CEO, Silvia Columb, has submitted a proposal to the Romanian Ministry of Transport regarding plans for a new budget subsidiary. Transport minister Ioan Rus told Romania's Stirile Pro television that the proposal, which involves using Tarom's fleet of four B737-300s, would be reviewed over the next four weeks with a consultative meeting to be held thereafter.
Having abandoned long haul flights early in the last decade, Tarom currently offers extensive domestic coverage as well as flights to Europe, the Middle East and north Africa. Its fleet consists of four B737-300s, four B737-700s, one B737-800, two A310-300s, four A318-100s, seven ATR42-500s, and two ATR72-500s.
Europe's traditional legacy carriers have increasingly turned to developing their own budget operations in a bid to wrestle back some of the European regional market from the likes of established LCCs such as Ryanair (FR, Dublin International), easyJet (London Luton), and Wizz Air (W6, Budapest).
Despite the relative success of the country's only local LCC, Blue Air (Romania) (BLA, Bucharest Henri Coanda), fellow Romanian operator Ten Airways (Bucharest Baneasa) was forced to abandon its own budget subsidiary, Fly Romania (Bucharest Henri Coanda), just three months after its launch citing poor load factors for the move.
