There was great joy in Brasov due to the opening of the airport. but the reality turns out to be very difficult because there are not many flights and the airport schedule is only until 19.00 and some planes have landed in Otopeni. Why is the situation so complicated and chaotic? Why does it take years for an airport to have a lot of passengers?

The airport is open, but success is not guaranteed

Brasov – Gimbav International Airport was inaugurated on Thursday with great fanfare, with many officials, with a ribbon cutting, with a council of priests. It is the first newly opened airport in the country in the last 50 years, and the people of Brasov have been waiting for an airport since the 90s.

The hard work is just beginning, only one company works more often, there were days without flights and it is not clear IF the airport will be successful. “The airport in Brașov will be among the top five in the country in 4-5 years,” said Adrian Vestea, the new Minister of Development and former president of CJ Brașov. So, even with generally optimistic official statements, it is clear that there is a very long way to go.

Photo: Vlad Barza

Airlines will not fly to the new airport quickly, and we must not forget that we are only at the beginning, and the development of this airport will be one of the small steps that will depend on many factors and will require serious funding. The fact that Brasov finally has an airport does NOT mean that it will automatically be a commercial success.

On June 17, a safe flight left for London, on June 18, when the photos in the article were taken, NOTHING took off or landed, and on June 19, the plane was scheduled to land and depart for a Greek island. Crete

• VIDEO The first airport opened in Romania in the last 50 years. What does it look like and which cities can you fly to from Brasov – Gimbav

Discussions began on the first day, when the inaugural flight Bucharest – Brasov brought officials to the inauguration. Many thought that Tarom would operate regular very short-haul flights from Bucharest to Brasov, but this will NOT be the case, and Tarom has NOT announced any specific plan to operate domestic flights from Brasov. A joke was also shared on Facebook: “Due to traffic jams on DN1, the Bucharest-Brasov flight was diverted to Cheia.”

Photo: Vlad Barza

It was also joked that Gimbav airport was ideal for buses, because due to the limited traffic schedule at Gimbav, there were cases where passengers landed at other airports and were taken by buses from there.

There is an extremely useful bus to the airport, line A1, Gara Brașov – Livada Poștei – Airport, which departs at fixed times from both ends of the line, and the journey from the center to the airport takes 25-30 minutes (10 km). The ticket costs 4 lei.

Airport with “supermarket program”

Well, there has been a lot of excitement and discussion these days, after the first air operator at the airport, Dan Air, got into a situation of taking/delivering passengers with tickets sold to Brasov to other airports.

Photo: Vlad Barza

Brasov-Gimbav Airport is officially open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and take-offs and landings can only take place during these times. In the announcement made by ROMATSA at the beginning of the year, the agency explained that there is a shortage of air traffic controllers and that several of them are currently in training.

This 12-hour schedule was derided by many on Facebook as unacceptably short, instead of the 15-17 hour schedule. An airport with a “maternity schedule” or a “supermarket schedule,” people wrote. Others wrote that Brasov has not only a virtual control tower, but also a “virtual airport” because very few planes land. There were also people who said that since the airport is new and has very few flights, the schedule is normal.

Many have said that Bucharest is sabotaging Brasov by introducing these time limits, especially since ROMATSA knew 2-3 years ago that the new airport would be opened, but did not initiate the training of air traffic controllers. Some have written that Bucharest, by imposing these restrictions on Gimbav Airport, wants to ensure that this airport will not develop well.

Photo: Vlad Barza

Dan Air also scheduled flights after 19:00, but these planes were not able to land in Brasov because the airport was closed, so passengers also arrived in Bucharest. ROMATSA announced at the beginning of May that the schedule for providing air navigation services at the new airport is from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Here you can read Dan Air releases from the last few days.

Dan AIR has been talking a lot about this topic, especially in the local press, accusing ROMATSA of putting sticks in its wheels. “The launch of the Dan Air flight schedule was based on close cooperation with Brasov Airport, which was always ready to find a solution to expand the airport’s schedule, but unfortunately we did not benefit from the cooperation with the other institutions involved,” a company representative said on June 15, quoted Transilvania Express.

On June 18, Dan Eyre said she was assured by airport management that she could be served at any time. “Having received constant assurances from Brasov Airport that we can be served at any time, we continued to promote our services and made promises to our passengers that today, on the first inaugural flights, we could not fully fulfill,” writes Good Day Brasov . .

The company also argued that the law allows landings without air traffic services.

“Unfortunately, ROMATSA can only provide air traffic services for Brasov airport from 07:00 to 19:00, despite the fact that Dan Air has proposed solutions that allow the airport to operate without air traffic services (…) Even and in a situation where the Brasov airport was left without air traffic service, the legislative framework allows air carriers to work, including in airspace and uncontrolled airports,” the airline’s press release says.

The director of the autonomous body of the Brasov International Airport, Alexandru Angel, said that “there are syncopes and certain dysfunctional situations in all aviation. The air carrier is obliged to deliver its passengers to their destination.”

He also said, quoted by the newspaper Bună Ziua Brașov, that in the future it will also land after 19:00. Angel wanted to point out that in the case of Brasov Airport, several parties are involved in the air traffic problem, including the operators, the airport administration ROMATSA, which provides air traffic control. He also reminded that the airport’s schedule was known to the operators.

Dan Air knew the 12-hour schedule and sold tickets with boarding after 21:00. It is also true that Dan Air is the first company to commit to a permanent service from the new airport, and without it the airport would be almost empty because only a few charters to Greece and Turkey come to the airport.

Dan Air has announced that until at least June 30, flights from Bucharest to Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Barcelona and Brussels will operate with a 30-minute commercial stop in Brasov. Therefore, it will be a union.

WizzAir will start Brasov-Luton flights on August 2 and Brasov-Dortmund flights on September 2.

What ROMATSA said about the allegations related to the Brasov – Gimbav airport program

According to the Agreement between ROMATSA, as the air navigation service provider, and Brasov Gimbav International Airport, as the airport operator, signed at the beginning of March 2023, the schedule is set for 12 hours, between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.

The provision of air navigation services involves a number of procedures and standards that must be applied consistently and without compromise to ensure the safety of passengers.

Air traffic controller training for terminal air navigation services requires a minimum of 2 years plus the required selection period.

For Brasov airport, given the recently applied remote air traffic control technology, a first in Romania, as well as the newly created airspace, which has a high degree of complexity given the geography of the region, it was necessary to use several experienced controllers. . So we use controllers from Arad Tower, as well as from Oradea and Baia Mare. They already had initial training and many years of experience in piloting aircraft, and they were only additionally learning the configuration of Brasov Airport and the new technology used.

ROMATSA has 3 more controllers in the training program who will be authorized to provide air traffic control services at Brasov airport, which will allow us to make the schedule more flexible.

Since the airport is newly opened and there is no medium- and long-term predictability for stable air traffic, ROMATSA has calculated its staff on a 12-hour schedule, according to the agreement with the airport operator.

Until now, ROMATSA has not received any official request regarding the change of the working schedule at Brasov Airport.