Regional niche air carriers such as Tarom must stick to what they do best and that is to service a certain area they know very well, believes Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus, secretary general of the Association of European Airlines.
"To be able to cope with the problems the international aviation market is going through in the long run, Tarom needs to form an alliance with other airlines. Tarom knows the Romanian business & leisure market and flow of traffic to and from its country better than anybody else. However, it needs to conclude partnerships with major carriers in this industry that will benefit both parties," Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus said.
Tarom officials last year announced plans to join the Sky Team alliance. The Romanian company has a code-share agreement (jointly operated flights) in place with Alitalia, CSA Czech Airlines and Air France, all of which are alliance members.
At present, the European airline market is no longer defined by national borders but by segmentation into product lines, according to the AEA official, a trend that will soon become even more visible.
"To be able to cope on the market in the long-term, an European airline has two options. The first is the 'KLM way', namely a merger or integration into a giant in the industry. The second is the 'Sabena way', which turned into SN Brussels and opted for a regional strategy," the AEA official added.
SN Brussels was built from the assets of the late Sabena (which folded in 2001), after a group of Belgian shareholders provided funding to keep a national airline.
The main problem the aviation market is having at the moment is the inability to efficiently control costs.
"Airline business lost four years of growth. Be it the terror attacks in 2001, the SARS bug or the war in Iraq, all these events affected the airline business. The aviation market is on the road to recovery; traffic volume has increased and figures are looking promising for 2004 and beyond. However, the European airline industry remains vulnerable, with continuous pressure on costs and yields," Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus specified.
ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro
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