Blue Air compensation: up to €600 per passenger

Blue Air compensation: what your rights are worth now the airline has gone bust

Blue Air, the Romanian low-cost carrier based in Bucharest, has not flown since 6 September 2022. On that day it grounded its whole network with no warning, stranding passengers across Romania, Spain, Italy, France and the UK. We have received around 250 claims for Blue Air flights, and more than 8 in 10 of them concern a cancellation. This page sets out what the law gave you, what has happened to the company since, and the realistic options left.

As Blue Air Aviation S.A. was a Romanian airline, and therefore an EU carrier, Regulation (EC) 261/2004 covered every flight it operated from an EU airport and every flight it flew into the EU from outside, including its former routes from Liverpool. The rights existed. The difficulty today is finding someone able to honour them.

Not sure where your flight stands? Enter your Blue Air flight details and we will check it free of charge.

Did Blue Air go bankrupt? A short timeline

• September 2022: bank accounts frozen and all flights suspended overnight;
• November 2022: operating licence suspended;
• December 2022: the Romanian state takes a majority stake;
• March 2023: insolvency proceedings opened at the Bucharest Tribunal;
• 2025: creditors vote for bankruptcy and the remaining assets are put up for sale.

Passengers rank as ordinary unsecured creditors. They queue alongside the tax authority, former staff and suppliers, and are paid, if at all, only from what the liquidator raises by selling aircraft and other assets. So we will be straightforward: you should not expect Blue Air to pay the €250 or €400, nor a full ticket refund from the airline itself.

How much Blue Air should have paid

Compensation under the Regulation was a fixed sum per passenger, unrelated to the fare. On the routes that reach us most often, all linking Bucharest with Spain or France, the figure was €400 per person.

Each traveller held a separate entitlement, children with their own seat included. A couple with a child stranded on Valencia–Bucharest would have been owed €1,200 between them on top of the fares.

Blue Air cancelled your flight: routes that may still work

Some options do not depend on the failed airline at all and are often more promising than chasing Blue Air directly:

1. Package holiday. If the flight was part of a package sold by a tour operator or travel agent, the organiser is responsible for services not provided and must protect you against a supplier's insolvency.
2. Card payment. Ask your card issuer whether you can dispute the payment for a service never delivered. Time limits are short and the bank decides.
3. Travel insurance. Some policies cover airline failure or the cost of a replacement flight. Check the small print.
4. Out-of-pocket costs. Keep receipts for hotels, meals and replacement tickets bought in September 2022. Any claim will need them.

Refund and compensation are different things. A refund returns the fare for a flight you never took; compensation is the fixed payment for the disruption. With Blue Air both have become debts of a company in liquidation. More detail on the Blue Air cancelled flight page.

Blue Air delays before the collapse

Fewer than 1 in 10 of our Blue Air files involve a flight that did operate but landed 3 hours or more late, back when the airline still flew from Bucharest, Bacău, Cluj and Turin. The right to compensation arose in those cases too, but payment now depends on how the liquidation ends. While you waited, Blue Air owed you care:

On a single booking with a connection, the delay at the final destination was what counted. See the Blue Air delayed flight page for more.

Blue Air overbooking

About 8 in 100 Blue Air claims sent to us concern denied boarding. If you were bumped because the flight was oversold, compensation was due there and then, with no room for an extraordinary-circumstances defence. Read more in our guide to Blue Air overbooking.

Strikes and the Blue Air crisis: why the excuses fail

The EU Court of Justice has held that a strike by an airline's own staff is part of its normal business and does not release it from paying compensation (case C-28/20). The same logic applies even more clearly to an airline's own finances: in 2022 Blue Air blamed the shutdown on its frozen accounts, but managing its cash is hardly an outside event.

Blue Air flights between the UK, Spain, Italy and Romania

Before the shutdown Blue Air linked Bucharest with many Spanish and Italian cities and once ran a base in Liverpool, closed well before the collapse. In our files the Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia routes stand out, used heavily by the Romanian community in Spain. As an EU carrier, Blue Air was covered in both directions on all of them.

Making a Blue Air claim: on your own or with us

Blue Air's customer service no longer handles claims. The only forum left is the insolvency, which runs under Romanian law, in Romanian, with deadlines for lodging claims.

Documents to keep

• Blue Air bookingConfirmation email with reference and price paid.
• Proof of cancellationEmails, texts or website notices from September 2022.
• Receipts and IDExtra costs, replacement tickets and each traveller's ID.

Time limits

National law sets the deadline for flight compensation claims (EU Court of Justice, case C-139/11), but in a bankruptcy the proceedings' own deadlines matter most. The longer you wait, the fewer options remain.

Timescales: why there is no firm date with Blue Air

With an airline still trading, an accepted claim is usually paid within a few weeks, or a few months if a formal demand or court action is needed. With Blue Air everything hinges on the liquidator selling aircraft and assets and sharing the proceeds among creditors. That can take years, and the final amount may be small or nothing.

Lost luggage on a Blue Air flight

Baggage falls under the Montreal Convention: a PIR at the airport, then a written claim within 7 days for damage or 21 days for late delivery. Any unpaid baggage claim from before the shutdown is now also part of the insolvency.

Contacting Blue Air today

Company

Blue Air Aviation S.A., Bucharest, Romania (in bankruptcy)

Claims

No longer via customer service: claims go through the proceedings at the Bucharest Tribunal

Complaint bodies

The national enforcement body of the country where the flight departed (the CAA for UK departures), or the civil courts