Tarom rents up-to-date aircrafts

Tarom, Romania’s flag carrier, made the first step to replace the two Airbus A310 in its fleet, digi24.ro informs. In this context, the airline company launched two tenders for the lease of two aircrafts. In a first stage, Tarom could rent an aircraft together with the crew for a period of up to six months, so that subsequently the leases for four to six years.

The airline has clearly set criteria. Airplanes must not be older than five years, must have flight autonomy of over 4,600 kilometers and a capacity of 160 up to 190 seats. Also, the seats must be leather or a similar material, divided into two classes: economy and business. Furthermore, the airplanes must have at least a kitchen and three toilets.

Boeing 737-800 and Airbus A320 meet all these characteristics.

Tarom awaits offers by the end of this month. Part of the money to rent new jets would come from the sale of the old ones, for which the representatives of Romania’s flag carrier hope to get USD 10 million.

Replacing the two Airbus A310 is needed. By continuing to operate them would require a financial effort of USD 58 million in the next five years. Furthermore, Tarom does not have long-haul flights for which these aircrafts have been designed, so flying in the loss.

The two Airbus A310 have 22 years old and entered the Tarom fleet at end-December 1992. The two planes have nearly 100 thousand flight hours and will never get off the ground as of September 12, October 31 respectively.

After scrapping the two A310, Tarom will have a new fleet of ATR models, four Airbus A318 and eight Boeing.