The Airbus – IndiGo supercontract, Cluj’s big chance

A village of 600 inhabitants between Cluj and Alba, apparently forgotten by the world, suddenly becomes extremely important for the future of world aviation. The giant Airbus received a huge order of 500 aircraft, the largest in the history of civil aviation, and a good part of the wing components will be manufactured in Bădeni.

The area where the Sonaca Aerospace Transilvania (SAT) plant is located is now one of the most attractive in Romania. Here the Sebeș – Turda Highway (A10), the Transilvania Highway (A3) and the European Highway 81 meet. Between the municipality of Turda and the commune of Moldovenești, companies such as Kaufland Romania & Moldova, Porr, Fraenkische, Saint-Gobain Romania, as well as the local Altex, have built their centers and warehouses , Autonet, CIA Aboliv or Dachim.
It can be seen that it is an area in full economic development by the frequency of trucks crossing the road leading to the CTP Industrial Park. On the left is the Sonaca parking lot: a fleet of white cars, perfectly lined up. From the outside it seems quiet and peaceful, the day before the weekend.
Vilceanu Claudia, the human resources manager, welcomes us, a young woman with short hair, with a firm handshake. An inspired purchase for Sonaca, she has experience in HR at multinationals such as BOMBARDIER or Manpower.
“We came here shortly after the opening of the factory, in 2016. We were 22 people then, now we are 130. Our activity is such that we cannot absorb a large number of employees. There is a lot of manual work here, although we also have a robotic part.
It takes a long time to train a new employee because, having no such industry in the area and too little in Romania, you find very few qualified people. Then we have to train them for our very specific processes and business.
We do not target experienced people, we are unlikely to find them. In this situation, we should go to cities like Baia Mare, Timișoara or more distant locations. Even under these conditions, we should train them to adapt to what we produce”.
Charles Roussel has nothing in common with the “dusty” factory manager from Romania: he is jovial, dressed chic, dynamic and communicative. “I am a Frenchman raised in Normandy, who lived for 11 years in Belgium before coming to Romania in 2021. I live in Cluj-Napoca with my wife and two children.
We really appreciate the mountains of Transylvania that surround the city because we can practice winter sports, hiking, go camping. I would recommend Cluj to anyone, not only for business, but also for tourism”. What does he not like in Romania, in Cluj?
“Transport infrastructure. Highways, trains, public transport are still underdeveloped for a growing city, country. It would be nice to have the A3 to Hungary for our connections to Belgium. I hope that the National Recovery and Resilience Plan will be a good help for the country, if all the actors coordinate well”, says the general manager of Sonaca Transilvania