Romania's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Camera de Comerț și Industrie a României - CCIR) has set a December 1 deadline to establish Romanian Airlines under a joint-stock company owned by county councils operating local airports across the country.

The domestic startup is to address the lack of connectivity between Romanian cities, compounded by inadequate land and railway infrastructure, and identified in a study presented during a meeting of the CCIR on October 4, the organisation said in a statement. The plan was first announced in July 2023, and talks are reportedly taking place with Let Kunovice (Uherske Hradiste) about equipping the airline with Let 410 aircraft.

CCIR president Mihai Daraban said that county councils had already approved the establishment of the airline as a joint-stock company, with the municipalities as shareholders. The carrier would operate with "a significant number of small-capacity aircraft between the most important cities of the country," he added.

"At the moment, if someone wants to fly from Constanta to Timisoara they have to make a stopover in Rome or Milan because there's no direct flight between the two Romanian cities. We are basically talking about a big waste of time and money," he explained.

Separately, Wizz Air (W6, Budapest) CEO József Váradi told local reporters that Romania does not need its own airline because the Hungarian budget carrier has the capacity to take over the Romanian air transport market should flag carrier TAROM (RO, Bucharest Henri Coanda) not survive, the Puterea news site reported. TAROM is currently downsizing while being restructured as a condition for receiving Brussels-sanctioned state aid to offset Covid-era financial losses.

ch-aviation has approached Wizzair for comment.

Wizz Air and Wizz Air Malta (W4, Malta International) together hold an almost 40% market share (by weekly airline seats) at Bucharest Henri Coanda, according to the ch-aviation capacities module. From June 2024, the low-cost carrier will have nineteen A321Ns stationed at Bucharest and employ 800 people there, making it Wizz's single largest base and reinforcing its position in the Romanian market in general, where it claims a 57% market share.