Wizz Air Abu Dhabi has suspended its decision to relaunch daily flights to Moscow, Russia.
“Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, the ultra-low fare national airline of the UAE, regrets to inform its customers that the airline has had to defer the start date of its flight operations from Abu Dhabi to Moscow until further notice due to industry supply chain limitations,” the airline outlined in a statement seen by Reuters.
In a statement to AeroTime, Wizz Air reiterated that “the decision was made based purely on issues around supply chain limitations for aircraft spare parts and maintenance, which can impact the efficiency of operations for those routes”.
This news comes just two weeks after the UAE-based subsidiary of Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air had planned to resume flights between two cities from early October 2022.
However, the planned resumption of flights to Russia has sparked widespread criticism on social media, which included calls to boycott the budget carrier. On Twitter, adviser to the Head of the Office of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak said that “cooperation with Russian Federation – suicide for business”.
Cynics @wizzair decided that Ukrainians’ blood does not smell, but rubles from Moscow flights smell nice. Soon they realized that supporting barbarians is not about profit, but about destroyed reputation. EU companies must remember: cooperation with RF – suicide for business.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) August 20, 2022
Wizz Air suspended all its activities in Russia on February 27, 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The airline also said that all its flights to and from Russia will remain suspended during the whole summer season up until October 30, 2022.
Airlines registered in European Union have ceased flying to Russia due to sanctions imposed by the West. It is worth noting that Wizz Air Abu Dhabi is registered in the United Arab Emirates, which has not imposed sanctions on Russia and instead is keen to maintain a neutral position.
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) has a total of six subsidiaries, including Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, Wizz Air Ukraine, Wizz Air UK, Wizz Air Malta, Wizz Air Bulgaria, and Wizz Air.
UPDATE 22-08-2022, 14:25 (UTC +3): Added a comment from Wizz Air