Blue Air (Romania) (BLA, Bucharest Henri Coanda) has entered insolvency, having filed for it at its own request at the Seventh Civil Section (Secția a VII-a Civilă) of the Bucharest Court, online records of the court show. Creditors now have about six weeks to submit their claims to the court against the now 75% state-owned defunct budget carrier.
Last updated on March 24, the records list 96 creditors, including companies and individuals, former employees, and entities such as the Romanian Air Traffic Services Administration (ROMATSA), Cluj-Napoca airport, and the Romanian wing of passenger compensation chaser AirClaim. In 2021, it was estimated that Blue Air shouldered debts of over EUR176 million euros (USD189 million).
The court set deadlines for the insolvency case, for creditors to oppose the opening of the procedure (ten days from the case registration date, which was March 16); for creditors to lodge their claims (May 5); for verifying the receivables and publishing a preliminary table of them (May 25); for the first general meeting of creditors (May 30); and for finalising the table of claims (June 19).
According to the Romanian-language financial news site Profit.ro, AirClaim was the first company to apply to the court for the insolvency of the airline operator, a move whose initiator was previously unnamed in the media. That followed a court order on February 22 to close the “preventive agreement” (Concordatul Preventiv) creditor-protection procedure that Blue Air had been granted during the pandemic in July 2020.
Among Blue Air’s assets are three owned B737-500 aircraft, according to the ch-aviation fleets module. At the time that it ceased operations in early September 2022, it also operated a fourth jet of the same type, two B737-300s, one B737-700, five B737-8s, and six B737-800s, all of which were leased.
