In late September, an experienced pilot at low-cost European airline Wizz Air felt anxious after learning his plane would fly over Iraq at night amid mounting tensions between nearby Iran and Israel.
He decided to query the decision since just a week earlier the airline had deemed the route unsafe. In response, Wizz Air’s (WIZZ.L)
, opens new tab flight operations team told him the airway was now considered secure and he had to fly it, without giving further explanation, the pilot said.
“I wasn’t really happy with it,” the pilot, who requested anonymity from fear he could lose his job, told Reuters. Days later, Iraq closed its airspace when Iran fired missiles on Oct. 1 at Israel. “It confirmed my suspicion that it wasn’t safe.”
In response to Reuters’ queries, Wizz Air said safety of crew and passengers was its utmost priority and would not be compromised “in any circumstances”, adding its decisions on where to fly are based on stringent risk assessments in collaboration with third party intelligence specialists.
“Our aircraft and crews will only fly in airspace that has been deemed safe and we would never take any risks in this respect,” Wizz Air also said in a statement.
Reuters spoke to four pilots, three cabin crew members, three flight security experts and two airline executives about growing safety concerns in the European air industry due to escalating tensions in the Middle East following Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023, that prompted the war in Gaza.