The Hungarian carrier Wizz Air currently has four Aircraft trapped in Ukrainian Airports whilst fighting continues. It is presently unclear how the airline will recover these planes.
The airline has three A320-300s grounded at Kyiv Igor Sikorsky Airport and one in Lviv Danylo Halytskyi International Airport. The aeroplanes at Kyiv are:
- HA-LWY, which had arrived from Milan Malpensa, Italy
- HA-LPJ, which had arrived from Hamburg Helmut Schmidt, Germany
- HA-LPM which had arrived from Budapest, Hungary
- And the aircraft HA-LWS is trapped in Lviv Airport.
As well as planes, the airline has been rushing to get its staff out of the country. With the airspace over Ukraine and Moldova closed, it is unlikely that Wizz Air will be able to fly its planes out any time soon. The airline has said:
“We will be evacuating, at the earliest opportunity, the four aircraft (3 in Kyiv and 1 in Lviv) we have based on the ground.”
All flights from Ukraine cancelled
At 0:45 am GMT on Thursday 24 February, The Ukrainian State Air Traffic Services Enterprise declared Ukrainian Airspace closed, grounding all commercial aircraft. A few hours later, Russia invaded Ukraine and missile strikes began to rain down on major infrastructure (You can find our timeline of the day’s events here). At 7 am GMT, Wizz Air announced they would temporarily suspend all Ukraine flights. The Airline cancelled over 20 flights from Kyiv, which according to ch-aviation.com, included destinations in Poland, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Cyprus, Slovakia, Greece, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands and France.
One of the last airline to fly to Ukraine
Wizz Air was one of the last airlines in Europe, still operating regular flights to Ukraine the previous week before Russia invaded. Other carriers such as Vueling, Air France and Lufthansa decided to halt all operations once the threat of war started to look credible. Other airlines, such as AirBaltic, kept on flying the route but adjusted their schedules so that no aircraft would be left on the ground in Ukraine overnight. Wizz Air and Ryan Air were among the only carriers still offering complete services to Ukraine.
How do you think Wizz Air will recover their stranded aircraft? Let us know in the comments below!
