ROMATSA updated the NOTAM. See the list of countries with valid flights from / to Romania.

In recent days, there has been a less common chain of events. There is a flight ban, but airlines have ignored the NOTAM. And we all wondered what the situation was. I wrote that flights to Sweden, Portugal will be suspended. That flights to Turkey, Russia remain suspended. That flights to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will be suspended, but it flew on July 17. What happens? But let's see the chronology and how this whole mess was solved.

The Romanian government extended the alert by another 30 days by a government decision. In Annex 3 of the new Decision 553, approved on 15 July and published in the Official Gazette on 16 July, there is a paragraph on flights.

ROMATSA updated the NOTAM

The Aeronautical Authority issued a NOTAM that ROMATSA published on July 16, around 23:00. According to this notification, from July 17, all flights, operated from / to countries outside the green list, will be suspended. And yet how FlyDubai operated Dubai - Bucharest, and Qatar Airways operated Doha - Bucharest via Sofia?

Well, the NOTAM on the 16th had an error. The link, which referred to the green list approved by INSP Romania, was wrong. The airlines took note of NOTAM, but were eagerly waiting for the green list to be displayed at the wrong address.

Seeing the commotion of July 17, another NOTAM was issued, which would correct the one given the day before. The latter was much clearer, but also more rigid in changes.

List of countries with valid flights from / to Romania

Flights from Romania to countries are allowed: Andorra, Algeria, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Bulgaria, South Korea, Czech Republic, Georgia, Cyprus, Japan, Croatia, Morocco, Denmark, New Zealand, Switzerland, Rwanda, Estonia, Thailand , Finland, Tunisia, France, Uruguay, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Faroe Islands, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, United Kingdom, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Netherlands, Hungary, Vatican .

According to NOTAM, flights from these countries to Romania are also allowed to be operated. It's just that we have an exception here. Austria has blocked flights to / from Romania.

I didn't understand why a correction NOTAM was needed, when it was much easier to correct the wrong url to the list of green countries. By the way, the countries mentioned above are on the green list issued by INSP Romania on July 6.

In conclusion, flights from / to countries outside the green list issued by INSP Romania were suspended. In theory, every Monday, the INSP has the mission to publish the updated list. It remains to be seen whether this will happen on July 20.

The issued NOTAM is valid until August 15 or until new changes are made by Government Decision or by existing legislative channels.