ANPC fines Blue Air over ten million lei for the canceled flights from June 15

ANPC announced, on Tuesday evening, that it is sanctioning Blue Air with over ten million lei for the canceled flights from June 15, until now.

ANPC announced, on Tuesday evening, that it is sanctioning Blue Air for the canceled flights from June 15 until now, over 150,000 consumers from 23 member states of the European Union being affected. The total value of the sanctions applied to the company by ANPC amounts to 10 million lei.

“Given the situation generated, on the market, by the commercial behavior of the economic operator Blue Air Aviation SA and its continuation, the National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC) carried out an extensive control action that took into account how to comply with the legal provisions from the field of consumer protection regarding the air transport services of the operator, initially checking the situation of canceled flights between 15.06.2022 – 30.08.2022 and the offers made by the economic operator both on the official website, www.flyblueair.com, and on the official Facebook page of this or from the Blue Air app and subsequently extended as a result of information appearing in the public space regarding the cancellation of all flights from 06.09.2022 to 10.10.2022“, it is stated in the statement sent by ANPC.

Thus, the ANPC commissioners concluded the following:

– the economic operator Blue Air Aviation SA did not propose commitments or a plan of remedial measures for consumers within the term established by the competent authorities;

– during the analyzed period, respectively 15.06.2022 – 12.09.2022, 150,227 consumers from 23 member states of the European Union were affected;

– the economic operator’s practice was repetitive;

– the value of damages suffered by consumers amounts to EUR 19,582,065.96 (equivalent, calculated at the rate of 16.09.2022), respectively 96,447,549.47 LEI (equivalent, calculated at the rate of 16.09.2022), for the analyzed period and represents only the value of the purchased tickets, in reality the damage is much higher;

– the actual reimbursement of the ticket value for the canceled flights was made to a very small number of passengers who were actually reimbursed, i.e. 598 reservations were reimbursed (representing 0.7% of the total of 80,826 canceled reservations), the total amount of the actual reimbursements being the equivalent of EUR 115,016.11 (0.6% of the total amount of canceled reservations, respectively EUR 19,582,065.96);

– a percentage of 9.8% of the total amount to be reimbursed, i.e. the sum of 1,924,762.33 EURO was reimbursed in the wallet (electronic wallet), representing 10,685 reimbursements.

Following these findings, the ANPC team of commissioners decided to apply two contraventional fines, one in the amount of 2,000,000 EURO, and another in the amount of 200,000 lei for repeated violations. The total fines amount to 10,094,200 lei, the release also states.

Chaos at airports in Romania. How the Blue Air blockade was reached

Chaos at Romanian airports after, for the first time in the last 30 years, an airline could no longer pay its flight operating costs.

The Ministry of the Environment says it has blocked Blue Air’s accounts for a debt of almost 30 million lei, unpaid taxes for the planes’ carbon emissions.

Because of this, across the country, more than 20 planes remained on the ground and thousands of people could no longer leave for destinations all over Europe.

The airline blames ANPC

Blue Air accuses the Consumer Protection Authority of instigating passengers to stop buying tickets, a situation that caused the low-cost flight operator, losses of millions of euros.

On the other hand, the state representatives, through the voice of the Minister of the Environment, conveyed that the blocking of Blue Air’s accounts was not a reason for suspending the flights, and asked the company to resume them, offering that the solution would be the re-scheduling of the debts.

Blue Air is in a difficult financial situation and is recording losses of hundreds of millions of lei. The company was recently fined two million euros by the Consumer Protection for canceling nearly 200,000 bookings between April last year and April 2022.

The full press release of ANPC can be consulted at the end of the article.