Wizz Air has hit back at “misleading” claims from the consumer champion Which? that it is the worst performing airline in the UK.
The Hungarian budget carrier has repeatedly come out bottom of the pile of a number of Which? reports assessing the UK airline industry.
On Wednesday, a fresh survey found Wizz Air was “by far” the poorest performing airline for customer service, with a net satisfaction of just +13. The sector’s average is +52, while low-cost rival Ryanair scored +28.
Some 4,000 people took part in the report in May 2024, which aimed to establish the performance of businesses in customer service across a range of key sectors.
Around three in five of those surveyed who had contacted Wizz Air reported experiencing at least one problem, compared to two in five across the airline industry as a whole. Around four in ten reported long delays in receiving a response to their email, while the same number also reported speaking to “unhelpful or dismissive” advisors, Which? said.
Wizz has faced a barrage of criticism over service in recent years and was forced by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in January to cough up millions in refunds to passengers whose complaints had been falsely rejected.
But in an uncharacteristically defiant rebuttal, the budget airline accused Which of promoting “inaccurate, unrepresentative and misleading” information. “Once again, Which? is attempting to pull the wool over the public’s eyes with misleading research and a staggeringly low sample size.
“Wizz Air believes this is a tactic from Which? designed to generate headlines, which is unfair and unethical as it will only serve to confuse the public.”
Marion Geoffroy, Managing Director at Wizz Air UK, claimed Which had only surveyed 68 Wizz Air customers, or less than 0.0001 per cent of its UK customer base of around 12.3m passengers.
“It is unclear to us how Which? can claim its survey is nationally representative when only 1.66 per cent of their respondents said they had contacted Wizz Air’s customer service team.
“We are serious about constantly improving and providing great customer service. We made a public commitment to our customers in 2023 to improve Wizz Air’s operations and set ourselves clear targets. Since then, we have invested more than £90m and are proud of the results to date, which are among the strongest in the entire industry.”
She added: “Following disruption, customers will on average receive any compensation payment three times faster than 2022-2023, with the majority settled within 25 days. The share of customer claims answered within five days is five times better than it was three years ago, reaching 84.1 per centof customers today. For customer calls, the number of those calls answered within 35 seconds rose by 26 per cent in the same period.
“While we appreciate that there is always room for improvement – something the airline is wholeheartedly committed to – this data clearly shows that Wizz Air is doing a significantly better job than the erroneous Which? report suggests.
“We are disappointed that Which? is wrongly pointing the finger at Wizz Air once again and will continue to try to engage with the organisation to highlight the points raised in this response.”