Foreign Affairs Minister Oana Toiu said on Wednesday that Romania fully covered every seat allocated to it on evacuation flights organised through mechanisms linked to European institutions.
'Regarding evacuation flights through mechanisms linked to European institutions, the country organising the respective flight has a quota that is allocated to it. Romania fully covered every seat that was allocated to it. As for the quota allocated to other European citizens, confirmations come through the embassies of those centres. If, at the moment when the aircraft takes off, a European citizen has not come, of course they can be replaced if citizens of other states are at the airport, but no one can predict which of those who confirmed, from the cases selected by those countries, will be the case that will not be present at the airport,' Oana Toiu said at the Palace of Parliament.
Asked whether people who are not present at the airport but are on the lists to board the plane can be replaced with other people who are present at the airport but not on the lists, the foreign minister said: 'In theory, what you are saying is feasible. In practice, it depends on the consular teams. In Muscat we have two colleagues in the consular team, and we have now supplemented it. It is unusual for members of vulnerable groups to be called to the airport if they do not have a place on that aircraft. Moreover, commercial flights, as you know, in some cases depart without passengers even if they have the respective ticket, if they do not arrive on time, as the seats can no longer be compensated for in the short term. But I repeat, Romania used the seats allocated to it. The empty seats you mention were exclusively dedicated to certain European citizens who had confirmed through their embassies and were not present when the aircraft took off.'
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