Due to worries about the safety of its airspace, airline Wizz Air (WIZZ.L) said on Monday that it would stop flying to Moldova’s capital city of Chisinau as of March 14. The Moldovan civil aviation authority termed this decision as abrupt and unfortunate.
In a statement, Wizz Air announced that it would add additional flights from the Romanian city of Iasi to make up for the lost ones. These additional flights would go to a variety of destinations, including Berlin, Barcelona, Milan Bergamo, Bologna, Rome Ciampino, Rome Fuimicino, Dortumand, Larnaca, London Luton, and Treviso.
According to the airline, incoming flights to Chisinau will be redistributed to other locations in the Wizz Air network while flights to Budapest and Prague won’t be replaced.
“Passenger and crew safety continues to be Wizz Air’s top priority, and in light of recent events in Moldova and the elevated, but not immediate, risk in the country’s airspace, Wizz Air has made the difficult but responsible decision to suspend all flights to Chisinau starting on March 14,” it said.
Nicu Popescu, the foreign minister of Moldova, said on Wednesday that his country was ready for a “whole spectrum of threats” amid concerns that Moscow may step up its efforts to undermine the nation, which is still recovering from the conflict in neighboring Ukraine.
As Russian rockets intended at Ukraine breached Moldovan airspace and officials accused Moscow of inciting anti-government rallies, something the Kremlin denies, tensions between the two countries have risen recently.
Wizz Air’s decision had been communicated to Moldovan authorities through email, according to the country’s civil aviation authority. The airline had requested approval for its summer flight schedule on February 14 and had got it on Monday.
According to a message on the official Telegram channel of the Moldovan government, “government agencies have assessed that flights in the national airspace may be carried out safely by adhering to a number of protocols and they regret Wizz Air’s unexpected decision.”
It claimed that representatives of Wizz Air had been in “continuous interaction” with the civil aviation authority and the minister of infrastructure and regional development, who had informed them of the protocols in place to maintain aviation security.
The aviation authority promised to take “all necessary efforts” to lure other low-cost airlines and quickly bring Wizz Air back to the airport in Chisinau.
