Romanian low-cost airline Blue Air, headquartered in Bucharest, has announced that they have suspended all flights for at least 1 week according to the privately-owned company.
“Due to an unforeseen situation consisting in the seizure of all the accounts of the Blue Air Aviation company by the Ministry of the Environment, Blue Air is unable to pay the current costs, necessary for the operation of daily flights, which is why it is forced to stop all flights scheduled to depart from airports in Romania, until Monday, September 12, 2022” they announced.
The informed that the company will still operate flights from foreign airports, however, aircraft will not leave Romanian airports.
Blame Pinned on ANPC
The company has effectively blamed the Romanian Consumer Protection Agency (ANPC), after the agency urged travellers to stop purchasing Blue Air tickets, ultimately resulting in a loss of around €5 million from ticket sales.
The companies representatives claimed that, “Unfortunately, this blocking of all Blue Air bank accounts came shortly after the public statements and direct incitements to “stop buying Blue Air tickets” propagated in the public space by a high-ranking representative of the Romanian State, respectively the President of the National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC) of the Romanian state, led to:
– The significant destruction of passengers' trust in Blue Air, generating losses of over 5 million euros, by reducing the volume of ticket sales;– Increasing pressure from the key suppliers of Blue Air Aviation SA to pay the amounts necessary for daily operations in advance (impossible now, given the seizure of all the company's accounts);
– Blocking all discussions held in London by the Blue Air shareholders with 2 large investment firms interested in entering the Blue Air shareholding and supporting the company in recovering the losses suffered during the 2.5 years in which it went through the greatest difficulties in the entire history of the global aeronautical industry”.
In July, ANPC fined Blue Air for cancelling over 11,000 flights over a 12-month period with the motive being that the company were actively promoting flights and then cancelling with no grounds, breaching EC Regulation 261/2004.
