Over 1000 Romanian citizens remain stranded in the Middle East after flights from Israel, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, and Jordan were postponed. The Romanian Embassy intervened and transported people to the Egyptian capital, from where they were supposed to fly to Romania on the evening of March 1, 206.
However, delays generated by Israel-Egypt land transport and border formalities have forced the postponement of TAROM's special repatriation flights for the evening of March 2, 2026.
The Romanian airline will operate flights as soon as passengers can arrive at the airport and all operational conditions are aligned for the safe operation of flights.
The special flights were meant to repatriate over 300 Romanians to the country, but land transport and border formalities have led to long delays for passenger groups traveling to Cairo Airport.
“Under these conditions, the risk of exceeding the crews' service time (out-of-duty), with the potential to block the current operation, but also the aircraft in Egypt, is inevitable. Amid the blockages at the Israel-Egypt land border, information communicated late to TAROM, the estimated arrival time at Cairo airport of the Romanian groups is around 06:00, in the most optimistic scenario,“ said TAROM.
For the over 300 passengers, the baggage acceptance and processing formalities will exceed the minimum interval necessary for a timely takeoff (over one hour). In light of the new conditions, the risk of exceeding the crews' duty time, with the potential for aircraft to be blocked in Egypt and impacting TAROM flights to current destinations (crews and aircraft unavailable for flights operated in the current regime) is “imminent”, says the national carrier.
“To avoid rushing the movement and presentation of passengers at the airport under pressure, with the risk of blockages, errors, additional delays or the emergence of tense situations, as well as the impact on scheduled operations, it was decided to postpone the repatriation and take over the groups tomorrow evening from Cairo, under safe operational conditions.”
The rescheduling of special flights for the evening of March 2 is being carried out in coordination with the Romanian and Egyptian authorities, the Romanian Consulate in Cairo, and group organizers.
