Blue Air to strictly apply low-cost principles

“Last year, shareholders had to decide what kind of company Blue Air is, because it could no longer function as a hybrid company. It had lost its low-cost roots because, although it was a low-cost company and we sold cheap tickets, on certain routes we also offered free meals. Although our commercial policies stated that passengers had to buy extra luggage and we had prices displayed, no one at the airport respected this, and passengers had become accustomed to the idea of coming with as many bags as they wanted because no one asked them. We were not consistent in our service offering,” explained Oana Petrescu, the new CEO of Blue Air. 

She points out that, from a financial perspective, the low-cost company model is the best for the company because, internally, it reduces capacities the company does not need, and externally, passengers know what expectations to have.

Furthermore, according to information provided by the Blue Air CEO, the company has undergone a network restructuring process, eliminating unprofitable routes, restructuring the fleet, and resizing the number of staff, reallocated to important areas.

Oana Petrescu specified that next month, the company will launch a membership product, a subscription for passengers, and also plans to launch a prepaid product, a wallet through which passengers can buy in advance, with larger discounts.

Currently, Blue Air has 1,200 employees, in all bases, for 20 aircraft, of which 300 handle their maintenance and operates flights to 80 routes. 

Blue Air has six operational bases, in Bucharest, Bacau, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Larnaca and Turin.