Following a meeting we had today with TAROM officials, we’re bringing you additional details related to TAROM’s plans to restart long-haul flights to US in summer 2020, including the operating schedule submitted to FAA.
In the request submitted to FAA last week, Romania’s national carrier has applied for slots at two airports in New York – JFK and Newark – and Chicago. The plan is to restart long-haul flights to these cities in May 2020.
The proposed schedule (subject to change):
Bucharest – New York 10:00 – 13:20 / Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday
New York – Bucharest 15:20 – 06:00+1 / Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday
Bucharest – Chicago 10:00 – 18:15 / Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday
Chicago – Bucharest 20:00 – 07:00+1 / Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday
An answer from FAA regarding slot allocation is expected to arrive at the end of October or by mid-November. TAROM’s flights to New York and Chicago should be operated with 2-class (Business and Economy) Airbus A330-200 (or -300) with a capacity of “around 300 seats” (for the moment, TAROM wants to keep the layout of the aircraft confidential for commercial reasons). These two Airbus A330s will be dry-leased from a “well-known” lessor, company officials told us.
ATR 72-600 arriving, Boeing 737-300 departing
The first ATR 72-600 of the 9 ordered this summer will arrive by the end of October or beginning of November. Three more will enter TAROM’s fleet by year-end, with the remaining 5 in 2020: three in the first part of the year and the last two in December 2020. The 4 Boeing 737-300s, initially scheduled to leave the fleet gradually starting this month, will be retired until the end of the winter schedule (March 2020). They will be replaced with other jets from Airbus or Boeing, TAROM currently holds discussions with both manufacturers.