An airliner that had been stranded in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv for months flew out of Ukraine and landed in Poland on Tues
The aircraft belonged to Wizz Air, according to flight monitoring site Flightradar24, and was the first time since April 2022 that a commercial plane had flown out of Ukraine, it said.
“We can confirm that the A320 HA-LWS flew from Lviv to Katowice yesterday,” Ian Petchenik, Flightradar24 Director of Communications, told CNN. The aircraft took off sometime before 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday, according to Flightradar24 data.
The plane’s exact time of departure is unclear as it only turned on its transponder after clearing the Polish border, “likely done as a security measure,” said Petchenik.
While the Airbus A320 is registered to Wizz Air, Petchenik could not confirm whether the carrier was operating it.
CNN has reached out to Wizz Air, a low-cost carrier, for comment but has not received an immediate reply.
Petchenik also said Wizz Air still has three aircraft on the ground in the Ukrainian capital, with Hungarian registrations.
The Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry has said that it is ready to restart operations from Lviv airport if it obtains Western security guarantees. It’s unclear as yet how those would be arranged.
