newstodate.aero

Feb 28, 2023 (newstodate): Fears of a further spread of Russia's war on Ukraine is causing the Hungarian LCC Wizz Air to suspend flights to and from Moldova, neighboring Ukraine and Romania.
   Moldova has aired its suspicion of Russian maneuvers to use its militarily annexed parts of Moldova to open a new front against Ukraine, and has taken precautious steps to be able to block the runway at Chisinau Airport to make it inaccessible to potential Russian operations.
   In this environment of uncertainty, Wizz Air is to stop all operations in Moldova as of March 14, 2023.
   -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, flights from Chisinau to Budapest and Prague will be suspended”, a Wizz Air press release says.
   Wizz Air closed its base at Chisinau Airport already from December 2022, leaving the airport with no Wizz Air aircraft and crews overnight stays, while the carrier maintained traffic between Moldova and Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
   Wizz Air first launched flights to Moldova in September 2013, becoming the first carrier to introduce low-cost operations in the market, and opened its base at Chisinau Airport in March 2017.   
   As late as in September 2022, Wizz Air was the 3rd largest operator at Chisinau Airport, averaging 11 daily arrivals and departures, and recovering some 92 percent of the traffic in 2019.

   Not surprisingly, Moldova's Civil Aeronautical Authority is unhappy with the decision: -As a result of the risk analysis, the state institutions have established that flights in the national airspace can be performed safely, applying a series of procedures in this regard, and regrets the sudden decision taken by Wizz Air, the CAA says in a release on the decision.