In the past few days, the European airspace has been severely impacted due to airport slot management issues caused by multiple, simultaneous weather events occurring throughout Europe. These events have impaired the capabilities of air traffic control authorities and Eurocontrol to manage industry-wide traffic volumes, leading to major delays and cancellations across the European airline industry. These events have affected Wizz Air’s operations, as well as other airlines’ operations, across Europe.
On 26 June alone, the European airspace was carrying about 450,000 delay minutes, 360,000 of them stemming from weather, with significant delays over 3 hours. The Wizz Air network suffered over 30,000 extra airport slot delay minutes in the past four weeks compared to the same period last year, as a result of this extraordinary situation.
We apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused to some of our passengers, but unfortunately, this issue is out of our control. Wizz Air was prepared to ensure smooth summer operations for its passengers; however, the air traffic control system seems to be experiencing significant issues this summer. As an industry, we are compelled to escalate these issues with the relevant air traffic management authorities, including Eurocontrol, to ensure proper mitigation actions are implemented to minimise disruptions.
As always, Wizz Air will inform its passengers who booked directly with the airline about any schedule changes through SMS and email. Wizz Air strongly advises passengers to book directly on its website or app to ensure timely schedule updates and direct customer assistance. In case passengers have bookings with online travel agencies (OTAs) and other third parties, they should check the status of their flight and request changes as necessary through the respective OTAs.
It’s important to note that this issue is affecting many airlines, therefore hotel capacities across Europe may be limited. Wizz Air is doing everything to accommodate as many passengers as possible, but in case our external partners are unable to support all requests due to lack of room availability, passengers may be asked to arrange their own accommodation. Passengers can be assured that they will be able to claim for reimbursement of relevant out-of-pocket expenses up to a reasonable amount through Wizz Air's official website.
