On August 9, Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air announced that it was planning to re-launch air service between Abu Dhabi, UAE and Moscow, Russia, almost 5 months after all flights to Russia were canceled in the wake of Moscow’s vicious unprovoked attack on neighboring Ukraine.
But, according to the carrier’s latest statement, it has canceled its plans to resume Moscow flights following overwhelming criticism from the international community.
Wizz Air announced that it has ‘deferred’ the flights ‘until further notice’, due to ‘industry supply-chain limitations.’
The airline did not mention the immense social media backlash unleashed in response to its previous announcement, which included calls to boycott the carrier.
Initially, Wizz Air attempted to quell the criticism by saying the flight would be run by an Abu Dhabi venture, which is a registered carrier in the United Arab Emirates, operating in line with the Gulf state’s regulations, and is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ, which holds a majority stake in the enterprise, and London-listed Wizz Air, which owns the remaining 49%, but to no avail.
Facing the real threat of being ostracized by the international community, Wizz Air was left with no choice but to make U-turn on Russian flights resumption plans.
