A daring rescue: Wizz Air flies an Airbus A320 out of Ukraine

Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air managed to fly one of its aircraft out of Ukraine, even though the country’s airspace is currently closed.

Flight tracking services show that the Airbus A320, registered as HA-LWS, took off from Lviv (LWO) on a flight to Katowice (KTW), Poland, on the afternoon of September 13, 2022.

The aircraft had been stranded in LWO since February 24, 2022, after the country’s airspace was closed due to the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Wizz Air was one of several airlines to continue flying to Ukraine after initial warnings of the impending invasion in January and February 2022.

In the morning of February 24, as Russian missiles began to strike Ukrainian airports and the country issued Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) prohibiting the entry of its airspace, three Wizz Air aircraft remained parked at Kyiv Boryspil International Airport (KBP), with another parked at LWO.