Ukrainian crew after the war: where the UIA crew went, the Polish and Baltic carriers that took them and the airspace that changed the rosters
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#1 Prague, and this is a thread the crisis thread asked for and nobody wrote, because the crew who lived it are scattered. I have flown with several of them at my airline and at others and this is what they told me, written with their permission and without their names.
The Ukraine International crew
UIA stopped flying when the airspace closed and the crew, a few thousand, were suddenly without an airline in a country at war. The ones who could leave went to the Polish bases of Wizz and Ryanair (which recruited Ukrainians specifically in 2022 and 2023), to LOT, to the Baltic carriers (airBaltic took a group), to the Gulf events in Warsaw and Istanbul, and to the Central European charter carriers. The ones who stayed are a different story and not mine to tell.
What the receiving airlines did
Wizz and Ryanair ran fast tracked assessments for experienced UIA crew with the type ratings transferring where possible, a shortened training, and bases in Poland where the Ukrainian community was already large. LOT took Ukrainian speakers for the Ukraine adjacent routes and the Polish domestic. airBaltic took crew for Riga and the Baltic network. The Gulf carriers took the ones with the English and the service background, and the UIA business class crew were strong candidates.
The airspace that changed the rosters
The closed Ukrainian and Russian airspace rerouted every Europe to Asia flight: the Finnair Asia network lengthened by hours (Oskar's Helsinki is the airline most affected), the Lufthansa and Air France Asia flights took the southern routing, the Polish and Baltic carriers lost the eastern routes and gained the western ones. The crews on the Asia routes gained duty time and the rest rules had to absorb it. The rosters at every European carrier changed shape in a month and have not changed back.
What the Ukrainian crew say
That the Polish bases felt like home because the community was there. That the fast tracked assessment was the most humane thing an airline had done for them. That the Gulf was further from home than they wanted and that some went anyway for the money to send back. That the UIA years were a good airline and a good crew and that it ended on a Thursday. And that they fly now with a specific calm that the crisis thread describes, because they know what a crisis is.
The Eastern European carriers now
LOT grown with the eastern routes rerouted west, the Polish Wizz and Ryanair bases grown with the Ukrainian community, airBaltic grown as the Baltic gateway, the Czech and Slovak carriers absorbing some. The region's aviation map was redrawn by the war and the crew rooms carry it.
For the forum
The Ukrainian crew at the Polish and Baltic bases are the senior crew of those bases now in experience if not in years. If you fly with one, the crisis thread's advice applies: ask on a layover, not at a briefing, and listen.
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#2 Wizz Gdańsk, and the Ukrainian crew at the Polish Wizz bases are exactly as Lucie says: the senior crew in experience, the fast tracked assessments in 2022, the community in the base. Two of my seniors are ex UIA. They fly with the calm.
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#3 Wizz Warsaw, and the 2022 fast tracked UIA assessments at Warsaw were the most humane thing I have seen an airline do, exactly as the crew told Lucie. The Ukrainian crew in Warsaw are the base now. We are proud of it.
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#4 airBaltic Riga, and the UIA group that came to us in 2022 are flying the A220 across the Baltic network and some have moved up. The airspace rerouting changed our eastern routes to western ones and the crew with them. Lucie has the Baltic version right.
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#5 Finnair, and the airspace closure lengthened every Asia flight from Helsinki by hours and the rest rules absorbed it and the crews felt it. Finnair's whole Asia strategy was rerouted in a month. The Ukrainian crews' story and ours are connected through the sky.
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#6 MEA Beirut, and the crisis thread asked for this and Lucie has written it with the care it needed. The ended on a Thursday line is every crisis airline's line. The UIA crew are our colleagues in the specific calm.
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#7 Polish, ex Wizz, and the Ukrainian community at the Warsaw base in 2022 and 2023 is the thing I am proudest of from my Wizz years. The assessments, the shortened training, the base that became theirs. It was done right.
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#8 @paulinawaw the crew who told me their stories said the same about the Warsaw base: it was done right. Thank you for being part of it. The thread is theirs.