Passengers seek compensation: Wizz Air turned dream holiday into a nightmare

The Wizz Air plane reached Tenerife but could not land because of the strong winds. Therefore, the aircraft turned back to Budapest. And they even have to pay to cancel their reservation on the return flight. People are outraged and keep highlighting that the Hungarian low-cost airline destroyed their holiday and turned it into a nightmare because of their wrong decisions.

According to Szeretlek Magyarország, passengers wanted to go to Madeira at the beginning of April. But the plane could not land at the island’s airport due to the strong winds. Therefore, they went to Tenerife. People who wanted to spend time on the island of eternal spring could not reach their destination. Meanwhile, those who wanted to travel back to Budapest on that flight remained stranded in Madeira.

One of the passengers told her story to the Hungarian news outlet. The airport named after the island’s world-known footballer, Christiano Ronaldo, is one of the most difficult for pilots since there are not too much flatlands on the island. Therefore, part of the runway is built on concrete pillars. On the one side, there is the ocean, while on the other side, there are the hills. Moreover, ocean winds are regularly strong. Thus, landing is always hard. Here is a video:

Wizz Air’s plane tried to land several times but was unsuccessful. Thus, the 223 passengers landed in Tenerife instead of Madeira. Anna, the passenger writing her story for Szeretlek Magyarország, said the plane did multiple circles above the airport. That took one hour, and some burst into tears during the manoeuvres.

After they landed in Tenerife, information leaked slowly and hours passed. Finally, they learned that the low-cost airline hired buses and would take the passengers to local hotels. Moreover, ground crew said their Madeira flight would depart at 5 AM. As a result, Anna slept only 5 hours and could not eat properly. However, instead of taking off, they waited 8 hours at the airport the next day, and Wizz Air provided them with no additional information about how long they would have to wait.

They announced only at 2 PM that the plane would take off to bring them back to Budapest. Passengers had one hour to decide whether they would remain in Tenerife and pay for every cost or travel back to Hungary. They did not even have time to search for a ferry between the two islands. Finally, many of them decided to remain. The others were taken back to Budapest, where they landed at 10.35 PM.

The passengers created a Facebook group to share information. One wrote that people who remained stuck in Madeira were provided food and accommodation. But they needed to spend 7-8 hours at the airport for three days. Finally, their ‘rescue flight’ arrived on Friday. Many who chose to remain in Tenerife could not get back their luggage.

According to the passengers, Wizz Air could have managed the problem better. They should have waited for a day because the Madeira airport was able to take planes just hours after their unsuccessful attempt. Thus, they should have taken the passengers to Madeira the next day and taken home those who needed to remain the day before.

Szeretlek Magyarország asked Wizz Air, and the airline said their operations centre needed to make a quick decision harming as few passengers as possible. If the plane did not return to Budapest the next day, multiple other flights would have been cancelled due to the lack of aircraft. Wizz Air added they regularly provided information for the passengers and helped them with accommodation, and catering.

Passengers want compensation for their losses. In one example, that reached HUF one million (EUR 2671) since the harmed would have changed to an ocean cruiser on Madeira. However, Wizz Air does not want to pay, so some people would like to bring the case to the consumer protection authorities.

Anna is very dissatisfied and frustrated, but she will try to get to Madeira again this Saturday with Wizz Air.

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