Secretary of State in the Transport Ministry, Ionut Mosteanu, announced on Monday, after the hearing of the TAROM leadership in the Transport Commission of the Senate, that the airline will be restructured in the next spring.
“The consultancy contract will be soon signed, and probably next spring we’ll have a report of an international consultant, exploring several positioning routes for this company, and depending of the decision of that moment, we’ll also know the fleet structure. It’s mandatory for us to restructure the company before investing Romanian people’s money in a new fleet, so the next step after the consultant’s report will be the company’s restructuring, which, even if it will be painful, will have to be assumed by the next Government and by the next Parliament”, stated Ionut Mosteanu, Secretary of State in the Transport Ministry.
The President of the Transport Commission of the Senate, Daniel Butoi, stated after the hearing of the TAROM leadership and of the representatives of the Transport Ministry, that TAROM operates in safe traffic conditions and that the airline doesn’t have more reported incidents or delays than other airlines.
“I was glad to see that things are not as bad as they seemed to be, as we thought under the public perception’s influence. TAROM is working under extremely safe air traffic conditions; small incidents that happen, like the one from today at the Sofia airport, are things that happen in any company, and TAROM doesn’t have more or less incidents than other airlines. Since it’s a state company, maybe it has to be restructured, maybe a lot of things have to be solved inside the company”, stated Danil Butunoi, the President of the Transport Commission of the Senate.
The TAROM interim manager, Dan Plavati, stated, after the hearing in the Parliament, that TAROM doesn’t record more delays or incidents, compared to other airlines.
“Some aircrafts are 16 years old. The number of hours of use is the normal one for this type of aircrafts. Spare parts always come only from the providers agreed by the producer, and they are always new spare parts. We never gave up to this system. The maintenance program is strictly observed and it’s compliant to all the international and national regulations. We cannot give up and we will not give up to the safety issues. (…) They were just delays, and let’s say that there have been published more delays, but there’s not a larger number of defects. Everything is absolutely normal. All our colleagues from ground operations, those who take care for the passengers’ boarding, always inform passengers about any kind of delay”, stated Dan Plavati, TAROM interim manager.
TAROM leadership and representatives of the Transport Ministry were called on Monday to the Transport Commission of the Senate to explain the reasons that caused the last incidents related to the safety of the Romanian airline’s aircrafts. Besides, the takeoff of a TAROM flight on the route Bucharest – Sofia was delayed right on Monday morning, at 8.05 am, at the Otopeni Airport, and since the return from Sofia had to be performed with the same aircraft, it was also delayed. The departure flight, Bucharest – Sofia, was scheduled to take off at 8.05 am at the Otopeni Airport, but the flight was performed after four hours and a half. Because of the delay of the flight to Sofia, the return flight – from Sofia to Bucharest – had a delay at least as high as the departure.
“Two flights (Satu Mare and Cluj – e.n.) were merged because of the technical problem and the that delay which Sofia had; the Cluj flight is performed with a Boeing that will fly from Cluj to Satu Mare”, stated Dan Plavati, the TAROM interim manager.
Following several similar incidents, the Transport Minister, Sorin Buse, has recently asked for additional control measures regarding the safety of the aircrafts in the portfolio of the state company TAROM, requesting for the checks to be performed also by other employees than the ones who make the daily checks.
Tarom is currently operating with 22 aircrafts, after one of the Airbus A310 aircrafts purchased in 1992, was scrapped.
