Wizz Air Leaves Several Passengers at Budapest Airport after a Delay of Six Hours

As Hungary Today has already reported, in recent days and weeks there has been an increase in flight delays. Wizz Air’s flight to Cyprus took off on Monday afternoon after a six-hour delay due to the storm, but several passengers were left at the airport. The airline said in a statement that after it became clear that they would not be able to take off for some time due to the bad weather, the staff let the passengers back to the airport, writes Origo.

“We are currently waiting at Budapest Airport, as our Wizz Air flight to Larnaca at 4.15 p.m. has not yet departed,” a passenger wrote on the Utazómajom portal on Monday evening. She added that two hours before the flight was due to depart, passengers were informed that the flight would depart at 5.45 p.m. instead of 4.15 p.m., but check-in would not change and everyone should arrive at the airport on time.

Initially, everything went smoothly and passengers were boarded at around 6.30 p.m. However, the flight did not depart.

After waiting for almost 3.5 hours, the low-cost airline said that they would not take off due to “weather conditions” and that the staff’s working hours were over. The passengers were asked to disembark and were informed that the earliest departure time would be 11.10 p.m. instead of 4.15 p.m. Wizz Air apologized for the delay and the passengers were offered a voucher worth HUF 3,000 (EUR 7.59) which they could redeem at one of the restaurants closing at 9 p.m., thus they had 13 minutes left.

However, at 9.30 p.m., the flight was changed to 9.50 p.m. without any warning, which only a few passengers noticed. “At the information desk downstairs, they said it must be wrongly posted, it cannot depart. The last call was not heard at the restaurant,” wrote a passenger of the travel portal, who was called separately, as she had checked baggage and according to the rules of the flight, luggage cannot travel without its owner. She was the last to board the plane with her partner, running from the restaurant. They had no time to inform their fellow passengers.

The plane took off at 10.10 p.m. to huge cheers and applause. No e-mail or text message was sent by Wizz Air.

Hence those who believed the earlier claim that the flight would depart at 11.10 p.m. missed the flight. The airline has since issued a statement.

Wizz Air’s late afternoon Budapest-Larnaca flight on July 1 was unable to take off as scheduled due to stormy weather. In order to ensure that the flight could depart with the minimum possible delay, the airline has begun boarding passengers. “After passengers took their seats on board, while waiting, the crew was informed that the delay would be longer than expected, therefore the passengers were let back off the plane into the airport for their own comfort. At the same time, staff from the airline’s ground handling partner also provided passengers with the required meal vouchers,” the company began. Wizz Air staff, together with ground handling partners, asked passengers to watch the displays and ground handlers’ announcements regarding the departure of their flight.

“The second boarding took place earlier than initially forecast, which is why the flight was cleared for take-off a little earlier than predicted when the passengers were disembarking. This was indicated to passengers several times before boarding on displays in the lounge and via loudspeakers. Ground handling partners also repeatedly warned missing passengers of boarding by name via the PA system. Nine of them did not show up after repeated requests. The aircraft finally took off with the remaining passengers at 10.08 p.m.,” they concluded.

Via Origo; Featured image via Facebook/Wizz Air