UPDATE: Court of Appeal suspends Blue Air insolvency procedure

The Court of Appeal has suspended the execution of the insolvency procedure of Blue Air. The decision of the court was made on October 13.

The company announced it will continue its strategies and development plans.

“The legal department of Blue Air together with the law firm Stanescu Milos Dumitru si Asociatii managed to prove to the court that there is no reason for Blue Air to enter insolvency, and no economic danger for the company, and in this way we will put an end to the negative image campaign initiated against Blue Air,” according to the company’s press release.

 The Bucharest Court decided on October 6 to open the insolvency procedure in the case of Blue Air. Among the companies that requested the insolvency of Blue Air were Tarom, Carpatair, Service Excellence Solutions and Club Zexe for debts of approximately EUR 46,844 (RON 200,000).

However, the head of Blue Air said the company did not have any outstanding debts at that time.

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“Even during this period of crisis, Blue Air pays its debts to the state and towards its suppliers, in spite of financial blockage at a national level and even the process of re-structuring its fleet that the company has recently finalized,” said Sherif Ussama, CEO of Blue Air Transport Aerian.

Answering rumors that the court might decide to open the insolvency procedure in Blue Air, Ussama said: “We would be unpleasantly surprised by a potential decision of the Bucharest Court to open an insolvency procedure regarding our company, and we would consider this as a violation of commercial rights that we should enjoy, since at the moment, we do not have any debt towards the two so-called creditors in the insolvency files. In these conditions, the insolvency procedure cannot be opened and, as a foreign citizen, I do not understand how the Romanian legal system could do that,” said Ussama.

Blue Air explained that it had reached a payment agreement with Carpatair and Service Excellence Solutions and had already paid the outstanding debts, the proof of which was already in the file (file 13886/3/2010).

Blue Air gave up 5 of its 11 aircraft and 300 of its 800 employees during a restructuration process. “We have returned the 5th plane on September 15 and we have only 6 left, and our transport capacity has decreased with 40 percent,” said Gheorghe Racaru, manager of strategy and development of the company said.

Blue Air Transport Aerian SA is controlled by businessman Nelu Iordache. Last year Blue Air transported 1.7 million passengers and posted a turnover of EUR 150 million.

Otilia Haraga