TAROM Takes Delivery of Its First 737 MAX as It Rewrites Its EU Rescue Plan

Romania’s flag carrier TAROM took delivery of its first Boeing 737 MAX on September 12, 2026, the first of four 737-8 jets it is adding through operating and finance leases. Boeing, TAROM and lessor CDB Aviation marked the handover in Bucharest, and Boeing says the aircraft is the first 737 MAX in Romania.

The jet arrives at a delicate moment. TAROM owes the European Commission a revised restructuring plan by the end of September, and the state aid it has already received can be withdrawn if the airline cannot show it is viable by the end of 2026.

What TAROM Is Getting

The first two 737-8s come from CDB Aviation, the Ireland-based leasing arm of China Development Bank Financial Leasing, which sourced them from its own Boeing orderbook. TAROM says the second jet will arrive at the end of September and the remaining two in 2027.

CDB said in 2024 that the jets would be configured with 189 seats. Each is powered by CFM International LEAP-1B engines, and Boeing and TAROM both put the fuel and carbon savings at 20% against the aircraft being replaced.

TAROM will fly the MAX from its Henri Coandă base to major European capitals. The aircraft carries the name of Romanian football coach Mircea Lucescu, and his grandson Matei Lucescu attended the arrival ceremony, according to TAROM.

The jet was due to fly from Seattle to Bucharest by way of Keflavik, Iceland, spotmedia reported when TAROM collected it in early September.

Why a Single Jet Matters to TAROM

TAROM is small by European standards. Its own release puts the fleet at 10 aircraft, and Boeing says the single-aisle side the MAX is meant to renew currently includes four 737 Next-Generation jets.

In 2024 the European Commission approved up to €95.3 million in restructuring aid for the state-owned airline. The package combined a debt write-off of about €49.5 million with a capital injection of about €45.8 million.

The aid came with strings. TAROM had to cut routes and aircraft and hold that reduced capacity until December 31, 2026, the end of the restructuring period. The conditions included shrinking the fleet from 18 aircraft to 14, Economedia reported.

Fleet renewal was written into the plan from the start. The Commission counted proceeds from aircraft sales and a finance lease toward TAROM’s own contribution of about €77.7 million, and named the airline’s ageing fleet as one of the problems the aid was meant to fix.

A Plan That Slipped

The restructuring has not gone to schedule. In late July, acting Transport Minister Radu Miruta said TAROM had missed a June 2026 deadline to submit a revised plan, and warned that the Commission would withdraw the aid if the airline failed to demonstrate viability by the end of December, AGERPRES reported.

Miruta said the previous chief executive had been dismissed rather than having resigned. He set a new timeline: a draft plan by late August or early September to get early feedback from Brussels, then a final two-year plan by the end of September.

He gave two reasons TAROM deserves more time: higher fuel prices, which he said were not the airline’s fault, and delays in the delivery of new aircraft.

The 737-8 itself arrived well behind its original schedule. When CDB announced the lease in July 2024, it expected to deliver both jets between December 2025 and January 2026. Late MAX handovers are not unique to Romania: Vueling’s first 737 MAX has slipped into 2027 over a seat certification problem.

TAROM’s new chief executive, Cristian Anghel, tied the aircraft directly to the rescue effort. “Fleet renewal and efficient operational capacity are essential components of our restructuring plan,” he said in Boeing’s release.