TAROM budgets 7m-dollar profit

Tarom, the largest airline on the Romanian market, has budgeted a seven million-dollar (some 5.4 million-euro) gross profit, double against that of last year, with merely a 4% turnover growth. The National Air Transport Company (TAROM) aims to reach business worth 300 million dollars (approximately 230 million euros) in 2007, having witnessed an estimated turnover of 290 million dollars (approximately 224 million euros) last year. According to preliminary financial data, the company did not achieve its projected 300 million-dollar turnover in 2006. The increase in turnover was not substantial in 2006 against 2005, standing at some 1%, but the gross profit doubled. Whereas TAROM closed 2005 with a gross profit of approximately 1.4 million dollars (around 1.1 million euros), last year it reached 3 million dollars (about 2.3 million euros). This year’s profit increase could, on the one hand, be triggered by the increase in the number of passengers by some 7%, to 1.4 million passengers. Another reason for the increase in profit in 2007 is the shift to e-ticketing; tickets customers purchase online.