TAROM plans to regain market share with lower cost planes

“By 2012, our fleet will include 30 aircraft. We decided to rent or acquire lower cost planes to partly reduce costs and, simultaneously, attract more passengers,” the company’s General Manager, Gheorghe Barla, told Business Standard.

Market players indicate that TAROM has lost some 17-20 percent market share since 2003, when low-cost operators entered the local market.

The company recently signed a deal to rent three Boeing 737-800 New Generation planes, which is to lead to annual costs $36 million (€26 million). Fuel consumption of the Boeings will be 50 percent lower than the airline’s Airbus 310-325 aircraft.

The company could post some €5 million in gross profit this year, four times lower year-on-year, with income worth €397.5 million, 24.6 percent higher than in 2007. Expenditures are also set to increase 32 percent compared to last year.