Originally Posted by
Romanianflyer
Correct. I fly the OTP-CDG route relatively often, and even before Romania joined Schengen there were often policemen waiting at the aircraft doors to check everyone's documents (although for most pax it was just a quick look).
Fun note: Austria is now doing such checks as well at VIE for flights arriving from Romania - much to the dismay of Romanian politicians!
My hypothesis is passport checks in places like CDG, or VIE are part of an ongoing evaluation of Romania's full Schengen membership. Before the EU opens Romania's land borders with Hungary, they probably want to see how many undocumented travelers (who have no right to be in the EU) make their way from Romania to the West. It is in everyone's interest, including Romania, to keep that number very low. To expedite full membership into Schengen, the best thing Romania can do right now is to triple enforcement at its external (non-Schengen) borders and to have border officials doing targeted passport checks at Romanian airports upon departure.
By targeted, of course, I do not mean based on race or ethnicity. It should not be difficult to obtain the passenger manifest from the airline and see everyone's citizenship. Just focus on people who do not come from the EU or from countries such as UK/US/AU/CA/NZ and similar.
Again, the goal here on RO side of the Air Schengen link should be to apprehend as many undocumented travelers as possible, so that none get caught on the western end of that link. Then RO can make a case later this year that they have earned full Schengen membership.