Romanians blocked on airports at home, in London

Vineri, 4 ianuarie 2008, 17:20 English | Top News

Hundreds of Romanians have been stuck for more than 24 hours on airports in Bucharest and abroad by Friday at noon. On the Henri Coanda International Airport in Otopeni, Bucharest some 200 people waited for over 30 hours to leave for Vienna and London - which they finally did as late as Friday afternoon. In London, about 150 Romanians waiting to return home since Thursday morning learned they would only fly home on Monday.

On the Coanda Airport, flights to Madrid, Barcelona, Paris or Venice were hours late on Friday.

Many of the people stuck on airports, lots of whom were expecting to embark low-cost flights such as WizzAir, complained they had to sleep on airports and that they were not given food and water by airport staff, while many had to find accommodation on their expense.

A Henri Coanda Airport spokesman told Romanian TV news station Antena 3 that the blame for the flight to London belonged to WizzAir company, the representatives of which said, for their part, that airport officials were to blame for not having solutions to prepare the plane for leaving.


Another 177 passengers of a flight to Turin had to wait for more than 24 hours before departing from the Romanian city of Bacau, eastern Romania.

And in Egypt, 43 Romanian tourists who should have left for Bucharest last night have yet to learn when they would be able to return home.