The CAA’s latest quarterly complaints data sees Wizz ranked "clearly" as the worst airline for having complaints escalated to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) schemes or CAA’s own in-house complaints team.
The rate stood at 811 complaints per million passengers in the third-quarter. The CAA said with the exception of Royal Brunei Airlines (555 per million passengers), other airlines "had less than half as many complaints, and many significantly less".
Wizz has also been pulled up on the time taken to process claims received directly from passengers, and the large number of county court judgements found against Wizz that "remain unpaid".
"The UK Civil Aviation Authority has been clear with Wizz Air that this is an unacceptable way to treat passengers and that it is imperative for the issues to be tackled urgently," said the CAA on Friday (16 December).
Anna Bowles, head of consumer policy and enforcement at the CAA, said: "Passengers have every right to expect their complaints and claims to be resolved quickly and efficiently and to be treated fairly by airlines. The volume of complaints and claims received by ADR in respect of Wizz Air is far higher than those seen for other airlines. This, alongside the delays in processing and paying claims and the large number of county court judgments made against Wizz Air, has raised significant concerns for the CAA."
Bowles continued: "We have made it clear to Wizz Air its behaviour is unacceptable and that we expect overdue complaints and claims to be resolved in advance of Christmas. We understand the payment of county court judgements may continue into January, but we are encouraging Wizz Air to ensure that the payment of these is also prioritised. We will continue to monitor the situation. Where we have evidence that an airline is letting passengers down, we won’t hesitate to take further action where required.”
The CAA said Wizz Air had acknowledged the situation and "expressed regret" while also making commitments it will clear the claims backlog and outstanding ADR payments by Christmas. It added Wizz was "working to identify and conclude all outstanding CCJs".
TTG has approached Wizz for comment.
