Tarom expects a 21% increase of transported passengers in 2010

For the current year, Tarom airline estimates an increase by 21% of transported passengers, up to 2.14 mil. and an occupancy over 60%.

Ruxandra Brutaru, General Manager of the company, stated that, last year, the company managed to cut costs of raw materials by 42% at operational level, total expenditures by 17% and company debts by 19%, also paying the taxes to the state budget.

According to Tarom, the company has no back payments to the state budget as of December 31, 2009 and the long term obligations of the company, such as external loans, decreased in euro by 25% compared to 2008.

Although the beginning of 2010 was difficult, the company managed to regain its market share over the past months, which is over 20% at present, as the number of passengers and revenues for the first quarter show, compared to the same period last year, while more and more exploiting expenditures continue to fall, with the exception of fuel cost, stated Brutaru.

For increasing revenues for 2010-2011, the company envisages to increase online tickets sale by up to 20%, compared to 11% last year, as traffic grows.

Moreover, the main measures to cut expenditures in 2010-2011 are lowering distribution costs by up to 15%, renegotiating contracts with business partners, cutting administrative costs with personnel by reducing business travel departures by 50% and renegotiating contracts with training centers and partner hotels up to 20%.

Further, Tarom plans to relocate external agencies in airports to reduce costs by 15% and reducing the number of internal agencies up to their profitability to cut costs by 10%.

In 2009, Tarom posted EUR 191.4 mil. turnover and, considering the 2010 summer season, it operates towards 54 destinations in countries from Europe, North Africa and Middle East. 

Sursa: Bloom Biz [09.06.2010], Daily Business [09.06.2010], Gandul [09.06.2010], Wall-Street [09.06.2010], Ziarul Financiar [10.06.2010]