Poland’s two southeastern gateways—Rzeszów-Jasionka and Lublin—fell silent on the afternoon of 7 February 2026 after the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PANSA) ordered an immediate suspension of all civilian flights. The rare move came minutes after Russia launched a new wave of long-range missile and drone attacks on western Ukraine, some 90 kilometres from the Polish border.
According to PANSA and the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces, the closures were purely preventive. Military jets and surveillance aircraft needed unobstructed airspace to patrol the frontier, while ground-based air-defence and radar units were placed on heightened alert. Rzeszów—already NATO’s main logistics hub for moving weapons into Ukraine—became the focal point of the scramble, with FlightRadar24 tracking multiple allied tanker and early-warning sorties overhead.
![Poland Shuts Rzeszów and Lublin Airports as Military Aviation Scrambles After Russian Strikes on Ukraine]()
Although no Russian projectile crossed into Polish territory, the episode underscores how quickly the war next door can disrupt corporate mobility. Rzeszów handles more than 40 percent of all humanitarian and defence charters bound for Ukraine and is a popular entry point for business teams supporting reconstruction projects in Lviv and Kyiv. Companies with staff on recurring rotations through southeastern Poland faced cascading re-routing costs as airlines diverted or cancelled flights; LOT, Ryanair and Wizz Air issued rebooking waivers within hours of the order.
Amid such fluid conditions, VisaHQ can help organisations and travellers stay compliant; its online platform offers expedited Polish Schengen visa processing, guidance on residence permits and neighbouring-country documentation, and real-time updates on entry regulations—all available at https://www.visahq.com/poland/
Legal advisers note that force-majeure airspace closures do not trigger EU-261 compensation, but employers still owe duty-of-care to travelling staff. Best practice includes enrolling travellers in real-time alert platforms, maintaining contingency drivers between Kraków and the border, and ensuring that Schengen multi-entry visas or Polish residence permits remain valid in case of unscheduled over-stays. The defence ministry has not set an end-date for the shutdown, warning only that "measures will remain in place as long as the threat persists."
According to PANSA and the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces, the closures were purely preventive. Military jets and surveillance aircraft needed unobstructed airspace to patrol the frontier, while ground-based air-defence and radar units were placed on heightened alert. Rzeszów—already NATO’s main logistics hub for moving weapons into Ukraine—became the focal point of the scramble, with FlightRadar24 tracking multiple allied tanker and early-warning sorties overhead.
Although no Russian projectile crossed into Polish territory, the episode underscores how quickly the war next door can disrupt corporate mobility. Rzeszów handles more than 40 percent of all humanitarian and defence charters bound for Ukraine and is a popular entry point for business teams supporting reconstruction projects in Lviv and Kyiv. Companies with staff on recurring rotations through southeastern Poland faced cascading re-routing costs as airlines diverted or cancelled flights; LOT, Ryanair and Wizz Air issued rebooking waivers within hours of the order.
Amid such fluid conditions, VisaHQ can help organisations and travellers stay compliant; its online platform offers expedited Polish Schengen visa processing, guidance on residence permits and neighbouring-country documentation, and real-time updates on entry regulations—all available at https://www.visahq.com/poland/
Legal advisers note that force-majeure airspace closures do not trigger EU-261 compensation, but employers still owe duty-of-care to travelling staff. Best practice includes enrolling travellers in real-time alert platforms, maintaining contingency drivers between Kraków and the border, and ensuring that Schengen multi-entry visas or Polish residence permits remain valid in case of unscheduled over-stays. The defence ministry has not set an end-date for the shutdown, warning only that "measures will remain in place as long as the threat persists."
