In 1920, the French-Romanian Company for Air Navigation was founded. Shortly known as CFRNA, this was the first national airline of Romania.
In 1928, CFRNA changed its name to SNNA – Serviciul National de Navigatie Aeriana (The National Air Navigation Service), only to change that to LARES – Liniile Aeriene Române Exploatate de Stat (Romanian Air Line Exploited by the State) two years later.
In 1937, LARES merged with its competitor, SARTA – Societatea Anonima Româna de Transporturi Aeriene (Romanian Air Transport Liability Company).
After World War II, TARS – Transporturi Aeriene Româno-Sovietice (Romanian-Soviet Air Transport) was established as a jointly-owned Romanian-Soviet Union company (1945).
Romania purchased the Soviet share of the company, and the airline became TAROM – Transporturi Aeriene Române (Romanian Air Transport) on the 18 th of September, 1954.
By 1960, TAROM added a dozen European destinations and, six years later, its first transatlantic flight took place.
In mid May, 1974, a regular service to New York’s JFK International Airport was introduced.
Before 1990, TAROM used almost exclusively Soviet-made aircraft, but an exception was made in 1968, when the BAC One Eleven was added to the fleet, and six years later, when Boeing 707s were acquired for TAROM’s long haul flights.
In 1978, a contract was signed with the UK to manufacture the BAC One Eleven in Romania as ROMBAC 1-11.
During the 1970s and 1980s, TAROM was the only Soviet Bloc airline operating flights to Tel Aviv, Israel.
By 1993, long haul flights to Montreal and Bangkok were introduced, using Ilyushin Il-62 and Airbus A310 aircraft.
Between 2001 and 2003, most intercontinental services were terminated, as well as non-profitable internal routes, focusing on key destinations in Europe and the Middle East.
2004 was the first profitable year for TAROM in the last decade, and between 2006 and 2009, the fleet increased from 16 to 26 aircraft.
In June 2010, TAROM joined SkyTeam as the alliance’s thirteenth member and adopted Flying Blue, the frequent flyer program created and operated by Air France and KLM.
In 2011, a Boeing 737 700 painted in SkyTeam livery inaugurated the new terminal of the Henri Coanda International Airport, Bucharest – Otopeni (OTP).
In 2012, as part of the company’s efforts to improve its services and to meet the needs of the passengers, TAROM launched a new version of its website, with a more friendly and intuitive interface, inaugurated the self-check-in machines at Henri Coanda International Airport – Bucharest and started offering SKyPriority services.
In 2013, TAROM launched a new online booking engine which can be used from smartphones operating on iOs, Android or Windows Phone. If TAROM’s website is accessed from a mobile phone, the type of terminal is automatically detected, and the user is redirected to the new version for smartphones.
In the summer of 2014, TAROM has begun the season by offering charter flights to the most beautiful vacation destinations, as well as more regular flights. The new Bucharest – Moscow, Bucharest – Stockholm, Iasi – Milan and Iasi – Tel Aviv flights inaugurated the summer season.
In October 2016, TAROM retired its last Airbus A310-300 aircraft after 24 years of operations, leaving the airline with a fleet of 21 airplanes of three different brands, Airbus, ATR, and Boeing, with an average age of over 15 years.
In May 2017, TAROM received two leased Boeing B737-800 NG aircraft. This was the first aircraft acquisition in 10 years.
For 2018, TAROM expects to make a gross profit of 27,000 lei. After 10 years of losses, with a loss of 206 million lei in 2017, the 2018 revenue and expenditure budget approved by the Romanian Government estimates the total revenues at 1.5 billion lei.
During its history, TAROM was only involved in a few deadly incidents, the first one taking place back in late December, 1974, when an Antonov An-24 crashed in the mountains, 22 km south of Sibiu, killing all 33 people on board, and the last one occurred on the 31st of March, 1995, when an Airbus A310 crashed near Bucharest in bad weather, and all 60 people on board perished.
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