Romanian low-cost airline Blue Air said on Friday, September 9, that it plans to resume flights on October 10, as it lacks the financial resources to do so starting Monday, September 12, as initially announced. In the same statement, it also asked passengers with flights scheduled until October 10 not to show up at the departure airports, as these flights cannot be operated.

"In the last 48 hours, the executive management, Board of Directors and shareholders of Blue Air found that ticket sales were significantly affected and payment processors blocked the amounts collected so far, so the company does not currently have the necessary funds to pay for fuel and other operational expenses for the flights planned starting with September 12," the air carrier said.

In addition, the company further explained that all providers of essential flight services had made the provision of such services conditional on the payment of outstanding debts.

Thus, Blue Air decided to resume flights next month, explaining that it also took into account its possibility "to reimburse all affected passengers and to pay all commercial partners the costs of the services provided in its favor."

The airline also said that it accumulated losses of some EUR 130 million due to "flight bans, the uncertainty of the many pandemic waves, the absolutely sudden and extraordinary increase in the price of fuel, mainly caused by the war in Ukraine, and the over 15% decrease in the purchasing power of the EUR against the USD."

In addition, it explained that the state aid of RON 300 million granted by the Government during the pandemic was sized "strictly to cover the losses suffered by Blue Air after the suspension of flights during the state of emergency between March and June 2020 and the company's limited cash deficit on December 31, 2020, given that pandemic has deeply affected the company's revenues in the period 2020-2021."

Blue Air, the biggest privately-owned Romanian airline, announced on September 6 that it would suspend flights for a week after the Environment Ministry blocked all of its bank accounts. This caused chaos in Romanian airports but also left many Romanians stuck abroad. Plus, the politicians started to point fingers at each other, mostly blaming the Government for mismanaging the situation. Meanwhile, the authorities decided to use Tarom planes to bring home the Romanians left stranded abroad.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

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