Passengers urged to avoid 'UK’s worst airline'
A Which? survey of thousands of Brits has revealed which airline passengers think is the worst in the UK, and if you're a frequent flier you might already have had an experience with them.
Unless you're willing to plump for a more expensive ticket, flying can be one of the more stressful ways to travel.
You've got to make sure you're at the airport in plenty of time to get through security and all the necessary checks before having to wait in a lounge where WH Smiths still rules the retail roost like it's 2007.
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Then you've got to squeeze yourself into a big metal bee with a bunch of other people before heading up, up and away.
The worst airline as voted for by Brits only got one star out of five for their boarding experience, cabin environment and seat comfort.
It also failed to win any more than two stars in any of the other categories surveyed, which included cleanliness and value for money.
Thousands of people were surveyed by Which? to determine what the UK's worst airline is and apparently bottom of the list is the short haul flight operator Wizz Air.
The airline's seat pitch, the difference between two rows in standard economy seating, is 28 inches, which is about two inches less space than aviation rival RyanAir.
Scores were calculated by a mixture of customer satisfaction and the passengers likelihood of recommending the airline to someone else.
Wizz Air got an overall score of 48 percent, below rivals RyanAir (52 percent) and Eurowings (53 percent), while British Airways also only managed to score 56 percent.
At the other end of the survey, Jet2 came out on top with 80 percent satisfaction while Turkish Airlines was a close second on 78 percent.
In December, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it had 'significant concerns' about the airline and criticised Wizz Air for 'unacceptable' behaviour as it found their passengers were more likely to escalate complaints.
The CAA also found that the budget airline was delaying paying money owed to passengers.
A spokesperson for Wizz Air said: "At Wizz Air, we do everything possible to ensure that passengers reach their destination on time and with minimal delay.
"We invest heavily into time performance, which is key to our ultra-efficient business model. A number of issues affecting the global aviation industry contributed to a worse time performance in 2022."
"These issues resulted from a widespread shortage in staff, in particular within air traffic control, ground operations and baggage handling, security and across airports."
"We are committed to constantly reviewing processes to mitigate these issues and are seeing an overall improvement in the on-time performance of our routes."
The spokesperson went on to say: "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."
"The onboard menu is reviewed and updated on a bi-monthly basis and, following customer feedback, a local products range was recently introduced on all Wizz Air UK flights. We welcome all customer feedback, so that we can continuously refine our processes to further enhance customer experience."
Joe Harker