Passenger sends debt collectors to London airport for Wizz Air refund

1600 claims have been filed against Wizz Air in the UK regarding outstanding refunds. Photo / Artur Vodznenko

A slighted passenger sent bailiffs to London’s Luton airport to collect money owed to him by Hungarian carrier Wizz Air, after his family holiday was cancelled without warning.

Russell Quirk says he was left ‘out of pocket’ last year when his flight to Portugal was cancelled by carrier Wizz Air. Despite being told that new flights would be refunded, Quirk said he was still waiting on the airline to pay back the money seven months on.

However Quirk was not going to give in or keep waiting. The passenger took the case to court which upheld Quirk’s complaint and sent debt collectors to the airline’s offices at Luton Airport in December.

The bailiffs were able to expedite the refund, with £4,500 ($8740) owed to Quirk and his family.

UK passengers have amassed $8.74 million in court claims against airlines regarding outstanding refunds travel expenses. Wizz Air is responsible for almost half of these, according to data collected by Which? consumer magazine. This represents some 1,600 customer claims worth $4.27 million taken out against the carrier.

Quirk described the treatment of passengers as “shocking, shambolic and shoddy” in an interview with BBC.

The family said that they weren’t offered so much as an apology.

“I had to wake my three daughters and tell them we weren’t going on holiday - they were very upset.”

Rebooking travel, additional hotel nights and other expenses amounted to around $8800. However the airline subsequently ignored Quirk’s claims for new flights and expenses.

Having sought a claim in the county court last year Wizz Air still failed to acknowledge the claim, so court bailiffs were sent to the airline’s premises at Luton airport to collect debts.

“Their option was to hand over the money or the bailiffs would take it in goods - it might have been chairs, tables, computers or an aircraft,” Quirk told the BBC.

The passenger was issued a refund in full rather than taking a plane as collateral.

A media statement from a Wizz Air spokesperson said it had settled over 400 county court judgments since the beginning of the year and that it was still dealing with operational issues, following the “unprecedented level of disruption due to the pandemic”.

“Regrettably there are outstanding cases that we are working to resolve as quickly as possible,” they said.