It is hard to think of a less popular
\nbrand in Romania these days than the private air operator Blue Air. Facing
\nfunding shortages, the airline left thousands of passengers in airports across
\nEurope.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The government earmarked around EUR 1 mln
\nfrom its reserve fund to cover repatriation costs for the Romanian nationals
\nstranded abroad. The money will be recovered in full from the private operator,
\nPM Nicolae Ciuc\u0103 promised. In turn, the transport minister Sorin Grindeanu
\nurged the travellers to claim compensations from the airline and to look for
\nother options to return to the country, given that the national operator TAROM
\ncannot possibly operate all the flights cancelled by Blue Air. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The leader of USR party in opposition, C\u0103t\u0103lin
\nDrul\u0103, himself a former transport minister, accuses Grindeanu of being
\naware of the situation with Blue Air, but failing to warn Romanians not to buy
\ntickets. This is how thousands of people paid for nothing, Drul\u0103 said, and
\nadded that lies are being circulated that people will get their money back,
\nbut there is nothing left to take from Blue Air. Blue Air is bankrupt, nobody
\nwill see a refund from them. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
So far thousands of
\npeople have asked for help to get back to Romania, and TAROM has organised a number of special
\nflights, most of them to Greece. Blue Air first decided to suspend all flights
\nuntil 12September, because they saw their accounts frozen by the
\nEnvironment Fund Agency, to which the company owes over EUR 5 mln. According to
\nBlue Air itself, this meant cancelling 400 flights, for which over 54,000
\npassengers had bought tickets. Now, the airline announces it plans to resume
\nflights only on 10 October, although the authorities have unfrozen its accounts.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The head of the National Consumer
\nProtection Authority, Horia Constantinescu, said the institution is considering
\ncriminal proceedings against Blue Air, and explained that the company had
\nalready proved it did not care about passengers’ rights. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Two months ago, the Authority fined the
\ncompany for having cancelled a large number of flights this year, which
\naffected tens of thousands of passengers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Blue Air is the largest Romanian airline in terms of
\nthe number of passengers, with an ultra-low cost business model. During 17 years
\nof operation, Blue Air serviced over 32 million customers and flew over 340 million
\nkm, reads a news release issued by the air operator. In normal times, this
\nsentence would sound like a progress report. Today, it feels more like an obituary. (AMP)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Romanian nationals stranded in European airports after the private operator Blue Air suspended flights are being repatriated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":93082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[37005,35462,39960,35579,40654,40655,34298],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-93109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-airline","tag-blue-air","tag-fine","tag-flights","tag-passengers","tag-straded","tag-suspended"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n