The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has taken enforcement action against Wizz Air following what it described as "significant concerns over high volumes of complaints about the airline not paying passengers what they are owed".
The regulator said that it had been in contact with Wizz Air for several months after complaints by passengers that their rights had not been met when flights were cancelled or delayed.
The CAA said that passengers were left "very frustrated" because they believed the airline had failed to meet its passenger rights obligations - particularly around providing alternative flights to enable passengers to get to their destinations when their flight had been cancelled. The CAA opined that this had "likely to have contributed to a large number of County Court Judgements (CCJs) which have been found against Wizz Air over the last nine months".
The UK CAA has now instructed Wizz Air to make changes to its policies and procedures to ensure consistent compliance with its re-routing and care obligations.
Wizz Air has engaged with the regulator and has committed to introduce changes to its policies, procedures and passenger communications. The airline has also committed to re-look at claims it received for replacement flight costs, transfers when replacement flights were via different airports, and care and assistance (typically hotel costs) following flight disruptions.
This will make sure passengers who made claims to Wizz Air in the past, but had their claims incorrectly rejected, will receive the money they are legally owed.
The action by the regulator will cover claims made for flights due to depart from or arrive into a UK airport on or after 18 March 2022.
Wizz Air has agreed to sign undertakings to formalise these commitments with the regulator.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority said that it will monitor the airline for compliance with its revised policies and procedures over the forthcoming months. As part of the enforcement action, Wizz Air will also be required to provide information to the UK Civil Aviation Authority about its review of closed expenses claims. The regulator says that it will also review a sample of the claims that Wizz Air relooks at, "so it is satisfied that passengers receive what they are owed".
Paul Smith, Joint-Interim Chief Executive at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: "This enforcement action sends a clear message that airlines must meet their obligations to passengers when they cancel or delay a flight. We will not hesitate to step in if we believe that airlines are not consistently doing this.
“Passengers have every right to expect their complaints and claims to be resolved quickly and efficiently and to be treated fairly by airlines, in line with regulations. We made it clear to Wizz Air last year that the way it was treating passengers was unacceptable.
“We will continue to watch the situation closely to check that passengers receive what they are owed and that Wizz Air’s policies have improved, so that consumers have a better experience if things go wrong.”
Wizz Air stated that it has "already launched its own commitments to reduce cancellations and create a better experience for customers", adding that these include "going above and beyond to operate its flights on time and aiming to resolve all customer claims within 45 days". The airline also committed to making 120% WIZZ credit refunds within 24 hours and process 100% ticket refunds within seven working days.
Wizz claims that "significant improvements" have already been made, noting that it had completed 99.57% of its flights in the first half of 2023. The airline has also paid more than 70% of County Court Judgements (CCJs) present in online records. Another 10% are in progress and the remaining 20% are being identified and processed, said the airline.
"Last summer, like all airlines in Europe, Wizz Air faced unprecedented operating challenges, driven mostly by the external environment, including ATC disruptions, airport constraints and staff shortages across the whole supply chain. As a result, we were unable to meet our own high standards of service. Flights were too often late or cancelled, disruption management overwhelmed our internal and external resources, and claims took too long to process and pay," explains Marion Geoffroy, Managing Director at Wizz Air UK. "We have learned from this experience and have taken significant steps to make our operation more robust and customer-centric."
Geoffroy added: "We expect this summer to be challenging for air traffic control, which will impact airlines. While we cannot anticipate every disruption, we have invested over £90 million to prepare for increased air traffic. We are confident that we have taken the right steps to better support passengers this summer season."
The airline says that it has implemented structural and organisational changes, including adding spare aircraft capacity to support during disruptions, increased staffing at the airport for operations and claim centres, built increased time into crew rosters and between flights to make schedules more resilient, doubled its operations team and split processes to be more efficient and focused on handling disruptions, and has implemented a new AI-based tool to forecast and mitigate possible disruptions.
Wizz Air also highlighted what it calls a heavy investment in customer experience, adding that changes for 2023 included launching a fully automated refund process, introducing 24/7 online support with a new chatbot called Amelia and launching a new customer service channel on Twitter @AskWIZZ. The airline has also contracted four new contact centres for increased customer service capacity, increased customer service agent training and quality checks to drive efficiency and quality of service, and said that it was working closely with ground handling providers to increase number of staff on-the-ground
"We know that we need to rebuild trust, and we want to show our customers how serious we are about making improvements for the future. Helping our customers reach their destination is our number one priority and we will continue to invest in our service to ensure they get there on time." Geoffroy concludes.