The judges of the 7th Civil Section of the Bucharest Court accepted Blue Air‘s request for insolvency on Monday, March 20. The low-cost airline company was thus able to propose a list of judicial administrators that are favorable to it, according to boardingpass.ro.
The company is suing former employees for outstanding financial rights, the judges ordering the connection of a Blue Air insolvency application file from February 2023 whose creditor parties are the “Avram Iancu” Airport from Cluj Napoca and a company that assists passengers to recover the compensation they airlines owe them for delayed or canceled flights.
The process may take several years to complete.
The airline operator faced serious challenges during the pandemic, and the National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC) sanctioned the airline with over 10 million lei for the canceled flights starting from June 15, 2022 – September 12.
At the end of 2022, the Romanian State became the majority shareholder of Blue Air Aviation SA through AAAS, an entity in which it owns 75% of the shares. The remaining 25% of this company’s shares are divided between Airlines Invest SA (1.191%) and Teodor Cristian Rada (23.809%).
In the analyzed period, namely June 15 – September 12, 2022, 150,227 consumers from 23 member states of the European Union were affected, and the economic operator’s practice was repetitive. The value of damages suffered by consumers exceeds the amount of 19.582 million euros (equivalent, calculated at the exchange rate from September 16), respectively over 96.447 million lei (equivalent, calculated at the exchange rate from September 16, 2022), for the period analyzed and represents only the value of the purchased tickets , in reality the damage is much greater.