Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos got upset when he wanted to buy food and a drink on a Ryanair flight from Bucharest to Timisoara but the crew didn't take local currency, according to local newspaper Romania Libera.

Apparently, Ciolos, who chose to fly low-cost with several members of his Government, wanted to buy some products after the aircraft reached cruise altitude. However, the crew aboard the aircraft only accepted payments in euro.

The Prime Minister apparently asked the flight attendants why it was not possible to pay in local currency (RON) on a domestic flight and the answer was that the plane was registered in Ireland and once in the air there was no legal obligation to accept payments in lei.

The Government’s spokesman Liviu Iolu confirmed the incident for Romania Libera and said that Ciolos asked his ministers and the National Consumer Protection Authority (ANPC) to check if the low-cost operator had been respecting the law when asking its passengers to pay in euro on domestic flights. The Prime Minister also plans to introduce a new regulation that obliges air carriers to accept local currency payments on domestic flights if such a rule doesn’t exist, Iolu added.

Ryanair’s representatives issued a press statement after the article appeared in Romania Libera. “We apologize for the inconvenience, but currently we do not accept payments in lei for the products bought aboard. We are continuously looking to improve every aspect of our business for a better flight experience for our clients,” reads the statement.

Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, who's is used to flying economy class rather than using private planes, went to Timisoara on Thursday to meet Serbia's Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, on Thursday, November 10. The two officials took a walk through the city and even stopped at the traffic light and waited for it to turn green, although the police had already stopped traffic for them to pass.

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editor@romania-insider.com