Romanian state-owned airline Tarom has paid total compensations worth about RON 3.8 million (over EUR 0.8 million) in 2012-2016 due to flight irregularities, according to the 2016 public report of the Court of Auditors.

“The evolution of complaints indicates a continuous decrease in customer satisfaction during the audited period. The measures taken by the management on the implementation of managerial internal control standards have not been sufficiently effective so that the internal control system has not been able to fully detect and correct errors, irregularities and non-compliance with the principles of economy, and provide efficiency and effectiveness in patrimony management,” reads the report cited by local Economica.net.

The document also said that the company’s management “paid insufficient attention to the internal audit and the results of its work,” and about 75% of the recommendations made by the internal auditors were not implemented or partially implemented.

Also, the report revealed that Tarom’s total revenues were on a slightly upward trend in the period 2012-2015, but then started to decrease in 2016.

According to the Court of Auditors’ report, in the period taken into consideration, the progressive reduction of operating losses has been programmed through the revenue and expenditure budgets. Starting with the financial year 2014, the company failed to meet the approved level of losses. Thus, according to the Court of Auditors' findings, the work carried out during the audited period was not economically and financially profitable.

Data from AirHelp, a world leader in obtaining compensations for airline passengers, showed that 42,000 Romanian passengers were affected by flight delays or cancelations last year. They would have been entitled to receiving EUR 12 million worth of total compensations.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com