Dan Air cancels several flights from Bucharest, blames Brasov Airport operating schedule

Low-cost airline Dan Air recently announced that flights from Bucharest's Otopeni Airport to Nuremberg, Brussels, Munich, Malaga, Stuttgart, and London, as well as Brasov-Malaga, will be canceled from July 9 to July 29 due to the operating schedule of Brasov Airport and the lack of personnel within the Romanian Air Traffic Services Administration (Romatsa).

Dan Air representatives say that 2,598 passengers would be affected by the cancellation of flights.

The company said it is obliged to cancel these flights due to the limited operating schedule of Brasov Airport. It also noted that the restrictive operating schedule affects connected flights from Bucharest and other countries.

"First and foremost, we apologize to the residents of Bucharest and hope they understand our decision to cancel several flights from Bucharest. The decision was made based on extensive analysis, where the human factor played a major role. Bucharest residents have many transportation alternatives as there are many airlines present at Bucharest Airport (OTP). However, at the moment, only Dan Air operates at the Brasov Airport, and therefore we cannot leave Brasov residents without their only means of air transport. Consequently, we will bear the losses that will be generated by canceling the majority of the flights from Bucharest, and all passengers will receive full refunds within 14 days," Dan Air said in a press release that was also published on Facebook.

According to company representatives, the flights from Brasov are interconnected with those from Bucharest (OTP) and external airports.

"We tried to propose a modification to the schedule for the affected flights to comply with Brasov Airport's operating schedule. Unfortunately, this was not possible for most of our destinations from Bucharest (OTP) in this summer program because we operate on European hubs where flight slots are allocated many months in advance," Dan Air CEO Matt Ian David said.

The press release also mentions that Dan Air found little support from the Romanian authorities. The company had announced at the end of June that it would ultimately continue flights at Brasov Airport, despite stating the day before that it intended to suspend them due to the inability to safely operate flights to/from the recently inaugurated airport.

The Brasov Ghimbav International Airport was recently opened after a EUR 140 million investment and has already been involved in a major scandal. Dan Air has complained that the airport has several issues, including the lack of equipment to remove birds from the airfield, the lack of maintenance organizations, and the refusal to extend the operating schedule by air traffic controllers beyond 07:00 to 19:00 in operational emergencies.