The European Commission has revealed this week that they will be recovering up to €33.84 million in state aid from Blue Air, that suspended operations in 2022.
It is understood the intra-state body has now deemed the restructuring plan of the airline “was not capable of restoring the airline’s long-term viability”.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Blue Air Failure: European Commission to Recover €33.84m…
The outcome from the European Commission on recovering state aid from Blue Air came from an investigation that started in April 2023.
Financial difficulties beleaguered the carrier from Romania since 2019, with it being understood that the plan submitted by Romania was “not feasible, coherent and sufficiently far-reaching to restore the airline’s long-term viability”.
“This was corroborated by Blue Air’s inability to maintain operations and its request in March 2023 to enter into insolvency proceedings”, the European Commission said in a statement.
“The restructuring plan has not been updated following the cessation of operations or the opening of the in-depth investigation.”
“Measures to support an inadequate and unrealistic restructuring plan that is not backed by sufficient market funding from investors beyond the rescue period are illegal under EU State aid rules.”
“Romania must now recover from Blue Air the unlawful State aid amounting to €33.84 million (RON 163.8 million) plus interest.”
All eyes will be on what else comes from this, as well as whether we see a time when Blue Air can get back into the skies again.
Did you know AviationSource has two newsletters? One covers the general news and analysis of the industry as a whole, and the other to do with emergencies that take place throughout the year! To subscribe to our General News Newsletter, CLICK HERE!
To subscribe to our Emergencies, Accidents & Incidents Newsletter, CLICK HERE!
Click the photo to join our WhatsApp channel so then you can stay up to date with everything going on in the aviation industry!
