Addressing parliament’s transport committee on Wednesday (17 April), CAA chair Sir Stephen Hillier said Wizz Air’s reluctance to honour its obligations to consumers following a series of delays and cancellations during 2022 and 2023 had highlighted deficiencies in its ability to act.
Hillier told the committee: “Essentially, what we are asking for is equivalent powers to what other regulators already have,” adding: “We need to make sure our statutory powers match rising consumer expectation.”
The committee was told the CAA faced difficulties in identifying incidences of non-compliance. Anna Bowles, the CAA’s head of consumer policy and enforcement, said an investigation into Wizz Air began in December 2022 but did not conclude until June 2023, when the carrier undertook to assist passengers better in times of disruption and to refund £1.24 million in welfare claims.
“That process was relatively straightforward [and] it still took a year,” she said, adding: “We have no ability to fine Wizz Air around that, so fining powers would be helpful and provide a disincentive to behave in certain ways. Had Wizz decided not to sign the undertaking, we would have had to take them to court.”
Bowles said the CAA had limited powers to gather information. Any enhanced powers need a change in the law and she asked the government to address this “when parliamentary time allows”.
She added the CAA had no information about how many complaints were made to any UK airline or how they responded. “That would be incredibly useful data to try and identify where things are going wrong and where we need to focus our attention.”
A review of the CAA’s remit is ongoing. Hillier said the government was clear in its support. “We look forward to it actually being moved into practice,” he said.
The panel also addressed the 2023 August bank holiday air traffic control meltdown. Bowles said: “Feedback was that communication was not as frequent as people would have liked for some people maybe stuck in resorts for a period of time.
“For more day to day cancellations and delays, we are relatively assured airlines do communicate passenger rights to them but in these more extreme situations we are having conversations around how that can improve.”
Carriers are required to inform passengers of their rights but do not have to adopt a set format. Committee member Sara Britcliffe MP suggested airlines issued leaflets rather than relying on apps in case of WiFi difficulties or when passengers had run out of data abroad. Bowles said this would be discussed.
Hillier added the CAA recognised it needed to deal with “those that are licensed by us” better. “We already recognise we need to do more,” he said.
"The particular focus is that ’you are too slow on your digitalisation’. That has started but will take probably at least three years to roll out fully. We need to get it right, particularly when talking about licensing and safety-related things."
