“We cannot come up with a new flight schedule by May (as the company had previously announced i.e.), we are focusing on what we can do: charters and aircraft rental in an ACMI system. Our airplanes fly to Germany, France, Italy, where pilgrimages ahead of Easter are now being organized,” said Paula Ardelean, Carpatair vice-president.
RTZ&Partners is the legal administrator of the carrier, which currently operates with three 100-seat Fokker aircraft and a 148-seat Boeing after it sent back the SAAB aircraft to leasing companies last year.
The company now has around 120 employees left, compared with 412 in 2012, according to Finance Ministry data.
Carpatair, founded 14 years ago by Nicolae Petrov, entered insolvency with a view to reorganization. The company had over 380 weekly flights to 34 destinations from the Timisoara airport and shipped more than 500,000 passengers annually.
The company has not reported profit since 2007 and losses amounted to EUR8 million in 2012.
The first step Carpatair took for reorganization was to cancel flights operated from and to Romania, in a bid to slash costs.
Carpatair now only operates two regular flights on Chisinau-Venice and Chisinau-London routes.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)