Wizz Air Suspends Flights to Moldova Over Fears That Air Space Might Not Be Safe Amidst Rising Tensions With Russia

Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air confirmed on Monday that it would suspend all flights to Moldova over rising fears that air space over the landlocked Eastern European nation which borders Ukraine could be unsafe due to increasing tensions with Russia.

The budget airline said it would ground flights to Moldova’s capital Chisinau from March 14 due to what it described as an “elevated but not imminent” security threat.

Wizz Air currently serves Chisinau from five European countries, including Austria, Czechia, Germany, Italy and Spain. In a statement, the airline said it would lay on additional flights to the Romanian city of Lasi, close to the Moldovan border.

Nonetheless, Moldova’s civil aviation regulator was critical of Wizz Air’s decision, deriding it as causing “uncertainty” and claiming that flights could be operated safely so long as airlines followed set procedures.

“Safety of the passengers and crew remain Wizz Air’s number one priority and following the recent developments in Moldova and the elevated, but not imminent, risk in the country’s airspace, Wizz Air has made the difficult but responsible decision to suspend all flights to Chisinau from the 14th of March,” the full statement from the airline explained.

In recent weeks, several Russian missiles aimed at Ukraine have entered Moldovan airspace, and the local government has accused the Kremlin of trying to destabilise Moldova.

Moldova’s internal security service recently accused Russia of trying to overthrow the pro-EU government. A series of public protests have been blamed on Russian meddling.

Wizz Air faced criticism at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine after it failed to get its staff and aircraft out of the country in the days before the Russian army entered Ukraine.

Ultimately, Wizz Air was forced to employ security experts to evacuate staffers out of the country under cover of darkness. It took many more months to get one of its stranded aircraft out of the Ukrainian city of Lviv to safety in Poland.