Romanian airline company Tarom will cut its prices by half starting next week, it was announced today. Transport minister Radu Berceanu explained for HotNews.ro that the move was necessary because Tarom services are outdated and the company may fail to keep up with the competition after the country joins the EU in January next year.

“Somebody must wake them up from this dream… Tarom is using a marketing strategy dating from 1966, not 2006… it is absurd”, he said.

Berceanu said that in case the experiment gives positive results, people may pay only a third of the current price for a domestic Tarom flight. But Tarom officials say they have not heard of such a decision yet.

The minister said it was absurd that a Tarom flight from Bucharest to London cost 300 euro, while one from Bucharest in South Romania to Cluj in the north-west costs 350 euro. And he said people will be able to fly at half the current prices until the end of the year to see whether more passengers buying cheaper tickets would lead to higher profits.

And Berceanu said Tarom was preparing a new strategy for international flights to support Romanians living or traveling to Portugal, New York, Beijing or Bangkok.

In 2005, Tarom reported a business figure of 250 million USD and a profit of only 3 million. The privatization of the company was first announced in 2000, but it was postponed due to a lack of offers.