Wizz Air invests heavily in reducing flight disruptions.
Wizz Air Promises a Better Year After Last Year’s Challenges
Wizz Air, the Hungarian low-cost airline, has promised a better year this year after facing several challenges in the previous year. Last year proved to be a difficult year for the airline as it faced capacity problems in air traffic control across Europe. This generated problems and doubled the time to get parts, according to Telex reports.
Despite last year’s challenges, Wizz Air’s market has grown. This year, the airline has 181 planes available, which is up from 119 last year. The airline aims to have 200 planes by the end of the year. This expansion has resulted in the purchase by British Airways of three ten-year-old aircraft from Wizz Air’s previous fleet.
Wizz Air’s communication manager, András Radó, said that before the pandemic, their flights were averaging a 98% load factor. Now it’s 80%, but it’s steadily increasing as summer is approaching. They do not depart with half-empty planes as they prefer to reduce ticket prices instead for economic and environmental reasons.
In terms of delays and cancellations, Wizz Air has learned its lessons and knows what it needs to improve. They are working on improving communication and the way the website works. According to their own data, they have completed 99.8% of their flights this year.
However, strikes are ongoing in Central Europe, with France facing a critical situation, and wage negotiations are underway in Germany. Many air traffic controllers have resigned during and after the pandemic, making it difficult to replace them. This often results in airline delays.
Wizz Air advises passengers to choose morning flights if they have both morning and afternoon flights to their destination. They also suggest considering leaving a day earlier if passengers are travelling on time for an event.
In recent high-profile incidents, such as Madeira, Wizz Air admitted that it had miscommunicated. Complaints often include a lack of passenger information, which the airline says is 90% from passengers who have bought their tickets from an online ticketing site rather than directly from them. To address this, the airline plans to improve passenger communications, have five spare planes in case a flight is needed, and increase their call centre team.
Wizz Air is preparing for a hot summer season with an outlay of around EUR 100 million. Despite the challenges ahead, the airline is committed to providing better service and addressing its past problems.
