Aviation in Romania

Romania has a rich tradition in the aviation field. At the beginning of the 20th century, flight pioneers like Aurel Vlaicu, Traian Vuia and George Valentin Bibescu brought important contributions to early aviation history, building revolutionary aeroplanes and changing the age's mentalities.

In the present, the Romanian Civil Aeronautic Authority is the one overseeing the activities.

History

In 1910 the Romanian scientist Henri Coandă built the world's first jet engine and made important discoveries in aeronautics and physics, such as the Coanda effect.

Hermann Oberth was also a native Romanian, born in Sibiu.

Along the 20th century Romania built military aircraft (the IAR-39 and IAR-80 before and during WWII and the IAR-93 and IAR-99 Şoim since the 70s), helicopters (IAR 316, IAR 330 - under Aerospatiale licence) as well as passenger aircraft (ROMBAC 1-11 built under British Aircraft Corporation licence).

The industrial facilities for aircraft building and maintenance are located in Bacǎu (Aerostar S.A.), Braşov (IAR S.A.), Craiova (Avioane Craiova S.A.) and Bucharest (Romaero S.A., Turbomecanica).

Dumitru Prunariu is the only Romanian astronaut who participated in a space mission (Soyuz 40 - May 14, 1981).

Romanian air transport operators

* TAROM - the state-owned Romanian operator, with the hub on Henri Coandă International Airport
* Romavia
* Carpatair - the hub airport: Timişoara "Traian Vuia"
* Blue Air - hub airport: Bucharest "Aurel Vlaicu"
* Acvila Air
* Ion Ţiriac Air

Former Romanian carriers:

* Jaro International - hub at "Aurel Vlaicu" International Airport, Bucharest
* Angel Airlines - hub airport : Bucharest "Aurel Vlaicu"
* Dac Air
* LAR Romanian Airlines

Airports in Romania

Romania has a well developed airport infrastructure compared to other countries in Eastern Europe. There are 17 commercial airports in service today, most of them opened for international traffic. Four of the airports (OTP, BBU, TSR, CND) have runways of over 3,200 m (10,500 ft) in length and are capable of handling wide-body aircraft. Three of the airports (BCM, CRA, SUJ) have runways of 2,500 m in length, while the rest of them have runways of 1,800 to 2,000 m. As of December 2006, TCE and CSB are the only airports with no regular flights. Almost all the airports have experienced traffic growth in the last 4 years.

Here is the list of airports in Romania considering the passenger traffic criteria in 2005.

International airports

Domestic airports

Note that some of these airports see at least some minor seasonal international charter activity, and are thus, at least part-time, staffed by customsofficials. Tulcea has a fairly important general and private aviation role (including international flights of such nature).

While Tulcea airport's figures are released, they are not accurate.

Airclubs

Future development

Following the ascendent curve of the economy growth, the air transportation in Romania experiences a favorable trend. Carpatair is the Romanian airline with the most spectacular growth; the national carrier TAROM is recovering from a difficult period at the beginning of 2000s, 2004 being the first profitable year in the last 10 years, but with a price: the cancellation of the long-haul flights to New York, Chicago, Montreal and Beijing. In 2006 the company started a fleet update program with the acquisition of 4 new Airbus A318 airplanes. The first Romanian low-cost airline, Blue Air, is going through a development phase, while other low cost airlines are ready to start their operations.

There are many investment projects also in airport infrastructure: the upgrading of the existing airports (major rehabilitation programs for OTP, TSR, CLJ, CND, the airports with the most significant traffic growth) and the construction of three new airports in Braşov (the only large Romanian city without a commercial airport), Galaţi - Brăila (a 600,000 inhabitants urban area without airport access) and Deva - Alba Iulia (Southern Transylvania).

Currently (dec. 2006) the most advanced project is the construction of the new Braşov Airport [http://www.aeroportbrasov.ro] , the construction site opening is planned for March 2007. The project consists of a 1 mil. passengers/year terminal and a runway of 2,800 m long.

References

External links

* [http://www.airportaar.ro/ Romanian Airports Association]
* [http://www.caa.ro/en/index.html Civil Aeronautical Authority]
* [http://www.romatsa.ro/en/homepage/ ROMATSA - Romanian Traffic Services Administration]
* [http://www.fallingrain.com/world/RO/airports.html FallingRain.com]
* [http://www.roaf.ro/en/index_en.htm Romanian Air Force]
* [http://www.rosa.ro/ Romanian Space Agency]
* [http://www.arcaspace.ro/en/home.htm ARCA shuttle program]

ee also

*Romanian Space Agency
*Science and technology in Romania