Wizz Air, which is the only EU airline to have bases and aircraft based in Ukraine (three in Kyiv and one at Lviv Airport), has announced plans to remove its aircraft from the eastern European country following the Russian invasion. The airline released a statement on Wednesday 2 March saying: “We have an evacuation plan ready to bring the assets out of the country when it is safe to do so.”
With the closure of Ukrainian, Moldovan and Russian airspace, the company has suspended all flights to and from Ukraine and Russia while operating Moldova flights out of Iasi, Romania. “We will continue to review the suspensions as the situation unfolds,” the statement continued.
“The aggregate Ukraine/ Russia impact was 2% fewer network flights in February than originally scheduled, and we expect March to see an impact of 7% on the network. For the first quarter of F23 (April to June) we are adjusting our point to point network to maximally mitigate this impact by redistributing capacity.
“In this very concerning situation we have been focused on helping our colleagues and their families in Ukraine to move to places of safety,” said József Váradi, Wizz Air Chief Executive
“We will offer already evacuated colleagues continued support and the choice to get employment elsewhere in the network, should they wish to. Wizz Air also announced it will support Ukrainian refugees by offering them 100,000 free seats on all short-haul flights departing from Ukraine’s border countries.
“We continue to work through the operational challenges arising from the crisis in Ukraine and we are redistributing capacity to routes and bases where we can drive demand in line with our proven ULCC model.”
