UK's worst short-haul airline revealed - and it's not RyanAir

Wizz Air has been crowned the worst short-haul airline by UK passengers – beating rivals RyanAir, Eurowings and British Airways.

The Hungary-based carrier was given a damning one star out of five for boarding experience, cabin environment and seat comfort in a new survey.

No more than two starts were given in the remaining categories, which included value for money and cleanliness, in the survey by consumer group Which?

Steve Parsons

The seats are two inches smaller than that of competitor RyanAir.

The airline’s overall customer score was 48 per cent, placing it bottom of the ranking below RyanAir with 52 per cent, Eurowings with 53 per cent and British Airways with 56 per cent.

In December, the Civil Aviation Authority said it has “significant concerns” about Wizz Air’s “unacceptable” behaviour as its passengers were far more likely to make escalated complaints than those of other carriers.

Some 811 grievances per million Wizz Air passengers on UK flights were brought to independent bodies between July and September.

With the exception of Royal Brunei Airlines which had 555 escalated complaints per million passengers, the rates for all other airlines were fewer than half of Wizz Air’s.

The carrier’s UK departures were an average of 14 minutes and 24 seconds behind schedule in 2021.

The survey of 8,046 UK adults in October was around passengers experiences of flying between 2020 and 2022.

Customer scores for airlines were calculated from a combination of travellers’ overall satisfaction and their likelihood to recommend.

Lars Steffens
Flickr / Lars Steffens

A spokesman for Wizz Air, who operate short-haul flights from eight UK airports including Birmingham, Edinburgh, Gatwick and Luton, said: “At Wizz Air, we do everything possible to ensure that passengers reach their destination on time and with minimal delay.

“Wizz Air operates a fleet of brand new, state-of-the-art Airbus aircraft, with an average age of 4.6 years, which offer passengers comfort, space and modern interiors.

“The A321neo features the widest single-aisle cabin configuration with 239 18-inch-wide seats.

“Every aircraft is cleaned after each flight and deep cleaned every night.”