On December 18, 1981, Colonel Constantin Grecu and Major Ioan Suciu were the first pilots to fly a Romanian Airforce L-39 on a mission. Between 1981 and 1985 a total of 32 Albatros trainers were delivered to the trainingunit at Boboc. A large number of L-39s were transferred to Grupul 49 at Ianca to replace the grounded IAR93 Vultur. In 1999 these L-39s returned to Boboc.

In the year 2000 ten L-39s were sold to Worldwide Warbirds from Phoenix, Arizona in the United States of America.

In 2001 another six were offered for sale leaving fifteen L-39s in the Romanian inventory. Sofar only one L-39 was lost: on June 11, 1997 Captain Comandor Gheorghe Cretu of Grupul 20 and General Flotila Aeriana Ioan Stan (the Romanian AF commander) were killed when their Albatros crashed and exploded at Timisoara airbase.

Initially the L-39s were scheduled to be replaced by the indigenous IAR99 but this failed to materialize. It is anticipated the remaining L-39s will at least soldier on till the newly ordered IAR99 Soims have been delivered.