Romanian politicians criticize Blue Air and each other for cancelled flights
Low-cost airline Blue Air's decision to suddenly cancel its flights out of Romania for almost a week has sparked reactions from across the political spectrum. While some criticize the company for stranding its passengers, others argue that the Government mismanaged the situation from the start, first keeping the company afloat and then causing it to sink.
Transport minister Sorin Grindeanu, part of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), said that the Government will commit RON 5 mln to bring Romanians stranded abroad back home through state carrier Tarom. Grindeanu also stated that Blue Air could have still operated despite having its accounts blocked by the Environment Ministry.
“We have a European Regulation that applies to all airlines, including Blue Air, and this European Regulation says that when flights are canceled, when there are very long delays, those who bought the tickets can take legal action against the company and get their money back. This also applies to Blue Air,” said the minister, cited by G4Media.
Grindeanu also said that the Government itself will take Blue Air to court to get refunds for its passengers, aside from the sums that the company already owes the state.
Adrian Cozma, a member of Parliament and part of the governing National Liberal Party (PNL), criticized the Ministry of Environment for disrupting Blue Air’s operations without due notice. He also implied that the environment minister, a member of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), had a vested interest in bringing Blue Air down and giving the Budapest-based Wizz Air the upper hand in the Romanian market.
“You don't have to be a minister to realize that there are people who bought tickets a long time ago, and that an announcement two or three weeks ago would have softened the impact. The fact that the accounts were blocked – far be it from me to defend this company – but it is logical that when you block the accounts, they will no longer be able to refuel at the airport, that they will no longer be able to pay certain taxes because the accounts are blocked. It's only natural that they couldn’t fly anymore,” Cozma told B1.
Weighing in on the situation at hand, the president of reformist opposition party USR, Cătălin Drulă, said he believes that much of the blame for the situation regarding Blue Air can be ascribed to the Government. The politician argued that a RON 300 mln (EUR 61.7 mln) loan given to Blue Air by the state in 2020 will now not be returned, seeing as the state accepted as collateral assets worth only RON 10 mln, according to Drulă.
“Grindeanu had a due-diligence obligation not to let people end up in this desperate situation, stuck at airports, despite paying,” Drulă says, cited by G4Media. “The [Transport] Ministry has a representative on the board of directors of Blue Air as a result of the mega-loan given to them by the Romanian state,” he added.
Instead, Drulă argues, minister Grindeanu rejected the responsibility and gave the state’s stake in Blue Air to another government agency.
Blue Air’s downfall was prevented and then caused by the Government, which first gave it a large loan with little collateral, then blocked its accounts knowing it would bankrupt the company, according to the opposition party leader.
Over 2,000 Romanian citizens contacted the country’s embassies to ask for help in getting back home in the aftermath of Blue Air’s decision to cancel its flights for a week, according to PM Nicolae Ciucă.
(Photo source: Gabriel Petrescu | Dreamstime.com)
