On Tuesday, AnimaWings pulled six of its eight aircraft out of service. On Wednesday, it went to court. The Romanian airline filed for insolvency with the Bucharest Tribunal on 30 September 2026, one day after grounding its entire fleet of Airbus A220-300s over what it called repeated technical problems.

That leaves a carrier which flew some 60 routes this spring with just two ageing Airbus A320s. Its owners, the brothers Marius and Cristian Pandel of the Christian Tour travel group, say the filing is a way to protect the company while it reorganises. Passengers with tickets are less sure what it means for them.

Six Jets Down in a Day

AnimaWings was one of Europe's newer A220 operators. Several of its jets were less than two years old and some had been delivered only in recent months, according to Romanian broadcaster Pro TV. On 29 September the airline said it was taking all six A220-300s out of operation, citing repeated technical problems across the fleet.

Romanian media link the problems to the engines. Every A220 is powered by the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G geared turbofan, an engine family that has kept hundreds of aircraft worldwide on the ground for inspections in recent years. For a small airline with only eight jets, losing three quarters of the fleet at once is close to fatal.

Growth on Borrowed Money

The numbers show a company that grew fast and spent faster. According to figures reported by Romanian business titles Ziarul Financiar and Puterea, revenue jumped from about 125 million lei in 2024 to about 330 million lei in 2025. Over the same year a small profit turned into a loss of roughly 110 million lei, around €22 million, and total debts rose from about 33 million lei to about 157 million lei.

Puterea also reports more than 11,000 passenger lawsuits pending against the airline, mostly over cancellations and delays, and tax arrears of 11.5 million lei owed to Romania's ANAF tax agency by June 2026.

What Passengers Can Expect

The airline says it will keep flying as much as it can in a reduced form and will contact affected passengers directly through their booking details, offering rebooking or refunds under the applicable rules. Routes such as Cluj to Frankfurt and Vienna have already been cancelled, Pro TV reports.

Insolvency in Romania can lead to judicial reorganisation rather than liquidation, so AnimaWings is not finished yet. But with two A320s and a court process under way, the question is whether there is still an airline left to reorganise. AnimaWings is the second European carrier in two days to seek court protection, after Spain's Volotea.

A passenger flight review on one of the AnimaWings A220-300s, filmed when the jets were brand new.

Sources: Ziarul Financiar, Pro TV (Știrile ProTV), Puterea, Goldring, Gazeta de Sud