No stopping: Wizz Air leaves hundreds of passengers in Berlin

The Wizz Air flight from Berlin was scheduled to take off at 2:45 PM on Wednesday. The Hungarian low-cost airline’s plane is scheduled to depart for Budapest almost 24 hours later on Thursday at 2:00 PM.

A Hungarian stranded in Germany spoke to napi.hu about the ordeal of his journey. Wizz Air wrote in response to napi.hu’s inquire that the plane could not take off for indirect reasons, due to bad weather conditions.

The low-cost airline left about 200 passengers at Berlin-Brandenburg airport on Wednesday, napi.hu learned from a Hungarian working in Berlin. The man had wanted to return to Budapest for the Easter holidays, but the airline said his plane would not be leaving until Thursday at 2 PM.

Wizz Air rescheduled the flight 6-7 times

He told the news portal that on Wednesday, he and several colleagues working in Germany went to Berlin airport to catch the Wizz Air flight W62316. The flight was due to take off at 2:45 PM. After the check-in, the airline changed the departure time of the flight six or seven times.

They were informed by SMS and given two vouchers for 4 euros during the time they were at the airport. A sandwich at the Berlin airport costs EUR 6.5 to 7.5 and a half litre of mineral water or soft drink costs EUR 3 to 4, napi.hu recalls.

They waited in vain for their flight to depart until half past eleven at night, the Hungarian man said. Some of the passengers wanted to travel to Budapest with babies in swaddling clothes and others with children aged 3-5.

Circling, waiting, but not take-off

At 10:30 PM on Wednesday, the passengers were finally allowed to board the Wizz Air plane. After another 30-40 minutes of circling and waiting on the runway, the crew said they would check something and take off. However, at 11.30 PM they were again disembarked, as Berlin does not allow planes to take off at this time of day, only to land.

Passengers stranded in Germany who had nowhere to sleep were accommodated, the man stranded in Berlin told napi.hu. This morning, he received another text message from Wizz Air saying that his flight to Budapest leaves at 2:00 PM on Thursday.

The man told napi.hu that he left his accommodation for the airport at 11 AM on Wednesday and returned at 2.30 AM on Thursday.

Wizz Air’s flight between Berlin and Budapest on 5 April could not take off due to bad weather conditions, the airline told napi.hu. The aircraft, which was supposed to take the passengers to Hungary, was previously stuck at Iași International Airport in Romania, where a snowstorm prevented take-off.

Replacement plane

The airline sent a replacement plane to Berlin airport, which arrived successfully. However, it was unable to take passengers to Budapest before the facility closed. Therefore, the earliest the Berlin-Budapest flight can take off is expected to be at noon on 6 April, Wizz Air said.

They added that passengers will be compensated in accordance with the relevant legislation, the extent of which will be assessed in the coming days. Wizz Air apologises to all affected passengers for any inconvenience caused.

Not the only problematic Wizz Air flight this week

This is not the only problematic flight Wizz Air has had in recent days. As we reported earlier today, the earliest Wizz Air passengers stranded in Madeira due to bad weather could return home will be with Saturday’s scheduled flight.

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