EU Approves €4.4M Romanian Aid Scheme

Under EU State aid rules, the European Commission has approved a €4.4 million (US$5.2 million) Romanian aid scheme to compensate Romanian regional airport operators for the damage suffered due to the coronavirus outbreak. 

In order to limit the spread of the coronavirus, on March 16, 2020, Romania imposed the gradual suspension of most of the commercial flights to and from Romania.

Due to those flight bans as well as flight restrictions in other countries, the airlines operating at Romanian regional airports gradually reduced their scheduled flights, culminating in the total cessation of their operations on March 25, 2020. 

Until June 17, 2020, no scheduled international commercial flights took place at such airports, leaving passenger traffic close to zero. Air traffic started resuming only as of July 2020. 

Under the scheme, which will be open to operators of Romanian airports with an annual passenger traffic between 200,000 and 3 million, the Romanian authorities will be able to compensate those airports for the net losses suffered during the period between March 16 and June 30, 2020. as a result of the restrictive measures on international and domestic air passenger services implemented by Romania and other countries.

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