A Bucharest-Rome flight that was supposed to depart from the Otopeni Airport on Monday morning at 06:00 registered a five-hour delay due to an “unforeseen technical inspection,” reports local News.ro.

Although all passengers were on board the plane, they had to wait around four hours and a half as the take off was postponed due to an unforeseen technical inspection, according to Valentin Iordache, the communications director of Bucharest Airports National Company (CNAB).

Passengers’ boarding started at 05:32 on Monday morning, and ended at 06:05. However, as the take off was delayed, the passengers had to wait inside the aircraft. The airline then assigned another aircraft to operate the flight, which took off at 11:00.

The blizzard that hit Romania on Friday, January 6, led to the cancelling of several flights from the Otopeni Airport. Some flights have also registered delays on Monday morning, mainly due to the low temperatures. Bucharest and 36 counties are currently under an orange alert of extreme cold.

Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air continued to increase its activity in Romania last year, carrying over 5.5 million passengers to and from Romanian airports, 23% more than in 2015.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com