The new management at national flag carrier Tarom will revise the restructuring plan, approved by the European Commission in April 2024 along with a EUR 95 million state aid, and will file the first draft of the amended document in early September, with the final draft due by the end of September, acting transport minister Radu Miruta announced on July 28.  Romania will invoke the high fuel prices and delays in the delivery of aircraft to request more time for the restructuring, initially set for the end of this year, he explained.

Tarom has not reported a profit since 2008, except for a profit from the sale of assets in 2024.

Tarom failed to meet the targets set in the restructuring plan last year, and the deviation from the planned financial trajectory continued this year. 

Failure to demonstrate viability by the end of 2026, as envisaged under the restructuring plan, would result in the Commission withdrawing the state aid – which would push the company into bankruptcy.

Romania will notify the European Commission about its failure, under a note to be drafted by Tarom’s new CEO and endorsed by the Transport Ministry, minister Miruta announced, as reported by G4media.ro. The Romanian authorities will pledge to file the revised restructuring strategy to the European Commission in September, minister Miruta also said, without commenting on what the new plan may include.

At the end of April, deputy prime minister Oana Gheorghiu commented on the problematic situation at Tarom. “We know that Tarom is in a restructuring process approved by the European Commission. This process is not on schedule for reasons, some objective, some less objective, but the Tarom company is in dialogue with the European Commission," she said.

The company was supposed to either find a partner that would finance the continuation of its restructuring process, or it would be orderly closed down, according to a government document published by Economedia.ro at that time. Minister Miruta, who took over the Transport Ministry after the Social Democrats (PSD) pulled out from the executive, said he would evaluate the situation. Within several days, however, the government was dismissed by the Social Democrats and its priorities changed during the interim term.

Only recently, in July, minister Miruta dismissed Tarom’s CEO Bogdan Costas over failure to deliver a revised restructuring plan and requested his replacement, Cristian Anghel, to come up with the document for the European Commission and also revise the company’s 2026 financial projections.

The airline recorded a loss of EUR 30 million in the first 8 months of 2025, compared to a projected net profit of EUR 5 million, and a negative EBITDA of EUR 9 million, compared to a projected positive EBITDA of EUR 30 million, also hit hard by competition from low-cost companies, according to data published by Economica in February 2026. The company complained that it could not counter the aggressive policy of low-cost airlines due to the limitations imposed by the restructuring program, which limits the flexibility of routes and fleet. 

The company sent a monitoring letter to the European Commission in October 2025, stating that it did not meet its financial forecasts and that the reasons for this result are: intensifying competition on key European routes and aggressively developing the capacity of low-cost operators and new competitors; regional geopolitical tensions affecting access to airspace and passenger flows; global supply chain disruptions affecting aircraft maintenance; delays in the delivery of new aircraft, affecting the planned fleet renewal schedule; and higher prices of spare parts and longer repair times, which disrupted planned operations.

Under the revenue and expenditure budget for 2025, put up for public consultation by the Ministry of Transport at the end of October 2025, Tarom estimates the maintenance of the positive trend, with a small gross profit of RON 2.38 million for the year. The company, instead, achieved RON 186 million in losses for 2025, according to deputy prime minister Oana Gheorghiu, cited by Agerpres in June 2026.

iulian@romania-insider.com

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