Wizz Air leaves Hungarians in London for two days

On Monday evening, around 20-30 Hungarians were due to fly home from Luton in England to Budapest. However, Wizz Air first postponed the flight several times and then cancelled the flight completely. The passengers have been waiting at the airport for a day, but did not know how and when they will get home.

Another cancelled flight from Wizz Air

The aviation sector is still suffering the effects of the coronavirus epidemic. Many cancellations, delays and increased waiting times have made travel chaotic. Even so, the stories of stranded passengers are shocking. This time, Wizz Air left passengers stranded at London-Luton airport.

Record high temperatures in England. Temperatures were around 39-40 degrees Celsius on Monday. This also paralysed traffic. Even the tarmac is melting in this heat, so Luton airport was closed for a few hours. The runway was later opened to allow planes to arrive and take off.

“We expected that our departure time would be delayed, and it was: from 8.30 PM to 10.10 PM, then 10.30 PM, and finally 0.10 AM. Other planes were delayed. Then, at 11 PM, all flights were cancelled. All hell broke loose, with thousands of people, 50-60 planes, sloshing around in transit. It was hot, even the walls were dripping with sweat. There was a feeling that there was going to be some kind of trouble, crashing and smashing, the atmosphere was very heated, but luckily it didn’t happen”, reports a reader of Telex.hu.

From the transit, police officers escorted people to an outside hall of the airport. No one from Wizz Air was at the airport to provide information. So no one knew when or how they would get home, or whether they would get overnight accommodation.

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The Foreign Office provided assistance

The passengers stranded at the airport called the Hungarian Foreign Office, who were very helpful. They took notes of the incident and in the morning, several consulate staff went to the airport, putting pressure on Wizz Air. NGOs and the consulate provided water and food to those waiting. They tried to look for alternative routes, but all flights to Budapest and to neighbouring airports were full.