Wizz Air extends halt to Ukraine, Russia flights through October

Wizz Air Holdings Plc extended its cancellation of flights to Ukraine and Russia through the end of October as the war started by Vladimir Putin in February shows no sign of abating.

The move means Eastern Europe’s biggest discount carrier will have scrapped operations to the two countries for the whole of the summer timetable, which this year ends on Oct. 29.

Wizz’s website last week briefly showed flights to Ukraine as available again from July following the end of an initial suspension period. That’s now been rectified and services are unlikely to resume any time soon, spokeswoman Christie Rawlings told Bloomberg.

Four of Wizz’s Airbus SE A320-series planes remain in Ukraine after being stranded there following the start of the invasion. Three are in Kyiv, the capital, and one is in the western city of Lviv. The Budapest-based carrier would like to redeploy them elsewhere over the summer, but that’s currently impossible, Rawlings said.

“The aircraft are still there,” she said. “We’re keeping a regular watch on them via satellite and people on the ground.”

Rawlings said there will soon come a point when the jets are due for maintenance checks even though they haven’t been flying.