Can we be compensated for delayed or canceled flights and for which we missed the holiday?

These days, the Romanian press has written about a series of cancellations of some routes and flights made by Blue Air. The low-cost airline is not the first major deviation. Blue Air made operational adjustments and canceled hundreds of flights and suspended several routes in May and June 2022! The new adjustment aims to cancel some flights on routes from Bucharest, Iasi, Turin, Cluj and many others. These are 20 routes suspended until October, others canceled altogether, plus frequency changes.

Certainly, thousands of passengers are affected by these operational adjustments, many of them having flights to the long-awaited and long-awaited vacation, others having flights home because the month of holidays in the diaspora is coming. It is frustrating to book a plane ticket and wake up that the long-awaited flight is canceled.

After two years of pandemic and the start of a war-torn 2022, flight insecurity is another major problem facing Romanians. Blue Air is not the only company that cancels flights and routes. According to statistics, the number of canceled European flights is increasing.

The lack of qualified personnel in aircraft and airports is the main reason for these operational disruptions. Although the removal of COVID restrictions has generated a large wave of travel requests, we note that the current level is below that recorded in 2019, a very good pre-pandemic year, but in which there were no such problems with flights.

Affected passengers can only be compensated in certain circumstances. EU air passenger rights apply in the following situations:

• If you fly on EU territory (regardless of whether the flight is operated by a company inside or outside the EU).
• If land at an EU airport coming from outside the Union, and the race is operated by a EU company.
• If take off from an EU airport to a country outside the Union, regardless of whether the flight is operated by a EU or non-EU company.
• If you have not already received any compensation (compensation, redirection, airline assistance) for flight issues under the relevant legislation of a non-EU country.

If the flight is canceled, you have the right to choose between a refund, a return or a return flight. You are also entitled to airport assistance.

In case of canceled flights, passengers are entitled to compensation only if they have been notified of cancellation less than 14 days prior to the scheduled flight date. The airline has the obligation to prove if and when it has personally informed you in this regard. If you are unable to do so, please contact the national authority for assistance.

However, the operator does not have to pay compensation if he can prove that the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances, which could not have been avoided despite all possible measures being taken.

If you lose your flight for other reasons other than the airline, such as congestion at the airport or in traffic, you are not eligible for compensation and you cannot put pressure on the airline. However, if you go through such situations, look for an agreement with the airline and you may get a re-routing or rescheduling of the flight at minimal cost.

In order not to miss the flight due to congestion, take enough time so that you can pass in time through the flow from the airport to the boarding gate. For other tourist services, you can do the same travel insurance covering various delicate situations that may make it impossible to travel.

Airlines have also developed various FLEX packages covering certain unforeseen situations, including for canceled or delayed flights. It's important to be "safe" when it comes to travel and your budget. Look for all the solutions so that you can recover your money legally.