Romania

Three F-16s of the 32 purchased by Romania left the Rygge airbase near Oslo on Nov. 28 following upgrade and maintenance to prepare them for Romanian service.

The S-70M aircraft, built by PZL-Mielec in Poland, will be used for maritime and land search and rescue, firefighting, transport and medical emergency support.

European defense ministers have inaugurated a center to train Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16 combat aircraft.

The five aircraft touched down at the Fetești air base near Constanta, Romania, on Nov. 7, ahead of the formal opening of the European F-16 Training Center.

Romania’s defense ministry has launched the process to acquire as many as 48 Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

Current plans call for the first Romanian F-35s to be delivered by Lockheed Martin in 2030 to replace the country’s F-16 fleet.

Ukrainian pilots will begin training to fly F-16 combat aircraft this summer in a school to be set up in Romania.

Norway has formally sold 32 surplus F-16A/B combat aircraft to Romania after securing approval from U.S. authorities.

Romania appears to be accelerating its long-planned move to buy F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

The Hungarian LCC’s Romanian expansion plans are revealed on the heels of Blue Air’s suspension of flights.

Confirmation of the flight suspension came shortly after the Romanian LCC announced plans to codeshare with regional startup Air Connect.

The Romanian ULCC is opening a fourth base in its home country close to the border with Moldova.

The ATR 72 operator will focus on regional leisure routes.

The carrier has had a base at LTN since 2017.

The ULCC says it is adjusting its point-to-point network to 'maximally mitigate this impact by redistributing capacity.'

The LCC is expanding its network from Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Iasi as it eyes an upturn in outbound leisure demand this summer.

New leisure destinations are being added from Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca.

Blue Air is adding a fourth route to London Heathrow and its first not to originate at a point in Romania.

Blue Air will compete with Hungary’s Wizz Air on a city-pair basis.

Nonstop service between the Romanian city Cluj-Napoca and Dubai is set to resume in March.

The start-up carrier plans to launch two routes from the Romanian city in April.

COVID-19 will change how people travel once demand returns, according to tourism association.

Romania’s air travel market continues to expand, with seat numbers on course this year to top 25 million for the first time. Low-cost carrier Wizz Air has been a key driver and its growth shows no signs of abating.

As it celebrates ten years of operations in Romania, Wizz Air is offering the greatest connectivity between Romania and the rest of Europe and promoting economic development throughout the country with the introduction of new direct international services from an increasing number of regional points.