Wizz Air lets down its passengers? The aeroplane sent to Frankfurt-Budapest flight was too small

On Saturday morning, Wizz Air disappointed 50 passengers at Frankfurt Airport when the airline announced a few minutes before 10 am that not all the passengers will be able to board the Frankfurt-Budapest flight for which the time of departure was originally scheduled for 8.35 am. Wizz Air employees informed their customers that only those could get on the aeroplane whose seat was situated in rows 1 – 27. Priority boarding tickets were not taken into consideration.

According to a passenger, there was huge chaos during the selection process. Firstly, only those were permitted to get through the gates whose tickets matched the criteria mentioned above. Later on, other passengers were also selected randomly from the crowd. Furthermore, the QR scanner did not work well – it accepted tickets in the 30th row while rejected some which were registered in the 3rd row.

As the passengers reported to Hungarian news portal Index, the first announcement of Wizz Air was that there was a technical problem with the aeroplane; therefore, a new aircraft would be sent to deliver the passengers. Afterwards, the airline confessed that a small aeroplane was sent which did not have a sufficient number of seats.

Eventually, the aeroplane departed with half of the passengers, while the 50 remaining people were left at Frankfurt Airport.

After the gates had been closed, the disappointed 50 passengers were led out from the hall where people were checked-in to an external Wizz Air stand. As the passenger described the situation to Index, the employee sitting there could not help them at all; however, they were informed on the call that everything would be arranged at the stand. Later on, a report was shown to the passengers in which they outlined the situation: instead of 232 seats, 180 seats were provided on the aeroplane sent by Wizz Air.

In the afternoon, Wizz Air informed its customers at Frankfurt Airport that they MIGHT be delivered home to Budapest by Sunday afternoon. Then, passengers could sign up for accommodation at a local hotel.

According to the reporting traveller, it was a deadlock situation: if they leave, no compensation will be provided; if they stay, the time of their return to Budapest remains uncertain. This was the reason why some people gave up on indemnification and travelled to Dortmund to get back to Budapest with another flight.