Wizz Air: 25 times the number of flight cancellations
Wizz Air CEO József Váradi gave an interview in which he talked about the chaotic conditions at airports, frequent cancellations, strikes and rising airfares. Despite all these issues, people are still eager to book flights, he pointed out. According to Váradi, travel should not be considered a luxury commodity.
Mounting issues
Demand after the pandemic has grown faster than the aviation industry expected, which explains in some way all the cancellations and delays. There were not enough air traffic controllers, airport staff, or security personnel.
Wizz Air has cancelled as many flights as the European average, precisely 6.5 percent. Finding staff for air traffic control seems to pose the biggest issue as it takes 2-3 years to train one person. At other departments, it is much faster to train new staff, said József Váradi, CEO of Wizz Air, in an interview with rtl.hu.
“We are set up to be very efficient, which means that if the supply chain is not working, our model cannot function properly either,” Váradi said.
Váradi said they had overcome the hardships and drawn conclusions. They were now focusing on the Christmas rush and the next summer season.
Wizz Air cancelled 25 times as many flights as in the past. It is impossible to handle such a load overnight. Inadequate capacity has raised the voices of discontent over the summer. “It was physically impossible to respond to a twenty-five-fold swelling problem overnight.”
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Wizz Air expands
Wizz Air currently has 170 aircraft. 435 new Airbus aircraft have been ordered for the next 7-8 years. This year, they expect to serve 53 million passengers, and in the future, they plan to expand this number to 150-160 million travellers per year. At the same time, the current 1,000 flights a day could be increased to 3,000 flights a day.
Wizz Air aims to be one of the top three airlines in Europe. Wizz Air has been growing in the Central and Eastern European market as well as in the UK, Austria and Italy.
Váradi believes there is “a well-established cooperation between Wizz Air and the Hungarian government, which is successful and mutually beneficial.” Váradi and Wizz Air’s goals remain to ensure that travel will not become a luxury commodity, despite the difficult financial situation.
10 years in Debrecen
Wizz Air and Debrecen International Airport jointly celebrated 10 years of successful cooperation. In 2012, the first Wizz Air flight took off from Debrecen and headed to London-Luton. Since then, 2.1 million passengers have chosen Wizz Air flights, writes turizmusonline.hu.
“Debrecen has experienced outstanding development over the past decade and we are proud that this boom and economic recovery is partly due to Wizz Air’s operation in the city. We aim to continue to be part of the success of Debrecen and Debrecen International Airport,” said Váradi.
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Source: rtl.hu, turizmusonline.hu
Yep. Wizzair cancelled my flight, didn’t refund me, and made talking to them nearly impossible. It took them one second to charge my credit card. It’s been a month, and I still don’t have my money back. This is the worst business experience I’ve ever had.
I have the same experience as the comment above. Terrible customer support, charging for everything. Some destinations are difficult to get out of once they cancel.
Same as above. We were booked on a flight yesterday, finding out that is was cancelled when we arrived at Malaga airport. The biggest problem is ‘no WizzAir booking / information’ desk at the airport and hence your only real option is to phone the premium rate number and wait for as long as it takes … with the potential to rack up more and more expensive !!!!
So we checked at Jet2 and they pointed us towards a ‘handling desk’, but they couldn’t really help only the offer to possibly book the next day – not knowing if that flight might be cancelled too, because we were told that our flight had been cancelled due to a shortage of staff (or perhaps not enough people booked on that flight !!!) and if we did that, then we would have to pay for the accommodation and costs (with the potential to possibly claim it back). In addition, we had no option but to return to the UK yesterday because of a hotel booking that night (which we couldn’t cancel/get refunded at late notice). Tickets were available on a flight to GATWICK and so we booked those at our additional expense, then having to travel by train to LUTON at our expense and considerable inconvenience ———— ANY CHANCE of compensation ??? —- you tell me !!! We racked up additional costs of well over £300 !!! … through no fault of our own – to me that needs to be compensated – SIMPLE AS THAT !!!