The Romanian Government plans to use Tarom planes to bring home the Romanians left stranded abroad after Blue Air decided to suspend several of its flights until Monday, September 12. Plus, the authorities launched a special phone number that Romanian citizens can use to request assistance.

Shortly after Blue Air’s announcement, Government spokesman Dan Cărbunaru said a crisis cell was activated to find urgent solutions for the passengers affected by the suspension of Blue Air flights. According to him, a top priority is to bring back home the Romanians stuck at airports abroad.

Thus, Romanian citizens can ask for help at the nearest diplomatic mission or consular office of Romania and the special phone number 0040751084537. In the case of groups, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) recommends that only one person contacts the consular staff.

Once all the data is centralized, the authorities will use planes of the flag carrier Tarom to bring the Romanian nationals back home. Transport minister Sorin Grindeanu said the Government would allocate RON 5 million to Tarom for this purpose.

Prime minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Wednesday morning that 2,098 Romanian citizens have so far requested help to return to the country. They were in countries such as the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Croatia, Greece, Israel, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom, News.ro reported.

Blue Air, the biggest privately-owned Romanian airline, announced on Tuesday that it decided to suspend all the flights scheduled to take off from Romanian airports until Monday, September 12. It also said it was forced to take this decision after the Environment Ministry blocked all of its bank accounts. This caused chaos in Romanian airports but also left many Romanians stuck abroad.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Gov.ro)