Tarom’s private CEO ends term this November

Newsroom 25/09/2013 | 12:44

Christian Heinzmann, will end his term as CEO of state-owned airline Tarom on November 19, announced transport minister Ramona Manescu last week. Procedures to find a replacement have not yet begun, she added.

He has held the position since November 2012 and was initially supposed to have a 4-year term. However, at the end of June, Heinzmann and Dan Pascariu, the president of Tarom’s administration board, agreed to reduce the term to just one year. One month later, Pascariu said Tarom’s CEO had accomplished not even 30 percent of the objectives assumed through the management plan.

A former president of Luxair, Heinzmann has over 25 years of professional experience in the airline industry.

Despite disagreements between Tarom’s CEO and president of administration board, the state-owned airline managed in the first semester of this year to reduce its losses almost in half to RON 63 million (EUR 14 million) and to optimize operations.

Tarom is the first state-owned company in Romania for which private sector management was appointed, as part of the deal with the International Monetary fund. However, the process has not been easy. The initial proposal, Heinrich Vystoupil, former head of the Austrian Airlines representative office for Romania and the Republic of Molodova, stepped down shortly after being elected at the end of 2012, following contractual disagreements.