Romania has lost one airline to the courts this month already. On Thursday, 22 October 2026, a second one walked into the courthouse, this time insisting it would walk out again.

Dan Air, the Bucharest-based carrier that flies a small fleet of Airbus A320-family jets, filed a request with the Ilfov Tribunal to open insolvency proceedings with the intention of reorganising, according to the company’s own statement reported by Financial Intelligence. It says every scheduled flight will operate, tickets remain valid, and passengers do not need to do anything.

The filing came three weeks after AnimaWings, another Romanian airline, went down the same road.

Why Dan Air asked for protection

The company calls the filing preventive. In its statement it says it has no bank loans, funds itself from operating revenue and owes nothing to its fuel suppliers or to Bucharest Henri Coandă airport, but that a small number of service providers had demanded full payment of arrears before they would handle regular flights. Under a reorganisation plan, old debts would be paid on a schedule while current services are paid on time.

Romania Insider reports a more specific trigger: a debt of about €10 million to the country’s Environmental Fund Administration, due on 25 October. Chief executive Matt Ian David told the outlet that Dan Air has not bought the required carbon allowances since 2024. Faced with a choice between paying for emissions certificates and paying for fuel in a year of high jet fuel prices, he said, “we chose fuel.”

The Blue Air shadow

Romanian aviation has seen this film before. In 2022, Blue Air had its bank accounts frozen, suspended its flights and eventually shut down, stranding passengers across Europe. Dan Air says it filed early precisely to avoid a repeat: under Romania’s Law 85/2014 on judicial reorganisation, a court-supervised procedure shields a company from enforcement while it restructures.

Filing is not the same as opening proceedings, however. The court still has to rule on the request, and AnimaWings’ experience shows that is not automatic: a court rejected its first insolvency application for missing documents, and it filed again on the same day as Dan Air, Romania Insider reported.

Flying to Damascus on a Dan Air A320, the route that made the airline famous in 2025 (Just Planes).

A small airline with a big headline route

Dan Air began life in 2017 as Just Us Air, flying charters and wet-lease work, took its current name in 2021 and launched scheduled flights under its own brand in June 2023. Its biggest claim to fame came on 15 June 2025, when it became the first European airline to restart regular flights to Syria, with a Bucharest–Damascus service. It carried about 235,000 passengers in 2025.

Its aircraft belong to the lessor Aviator Capital, which the airline says supports it. Whether that support, and a court’s blessing, are enough to keep a small airline flying through a winter of high fuel prices and emissions bills is the question Romanian passengers will be watching.

Sources: Dan Air statement via Financial Intelligence (22 Oct 2026), Romania Insider, FlightGlobal, aeroTELEGRAPH, Bursa, Rador