Airlines ordered to pay over £11m after travel chaos – with Wizz Air responsible for over 40%

Just five airlines have been ordered to pay an astonishing £11,461,101 between them by courts and adjudicators, according to the latest figures.

Which? looked at six carriers in total and five of them – BA, easyJet, Ryanair, Tui and Wizz – had thousands of complaints made against them to adjudication schemes. We also found thousands of court judgments listed as ‘outstanding’.

While some judgments may have been issued for other reasons, many would have been for flights delayed or cancelled – and compensation or expenses not paid – in spring and summer 2022. 

Despite carrying far fewer UK passengers than BA, easyJet or Ryanair, Wizz was responsible for £4,904,555 of the overall figure. This includes county court judgments (CCJs) listed as ‘outstanding’, and rulings against it between April 2022 and March 2023 by the AviationADR adjudication scheme. 

In July, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) began enforcement action against Wizz. 

Wizz promised to reopen expenses claims from March last year. Its deadline to deal with them was 30 September.

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County court judgments against Wizz Air keep rising

Which? first obtained records of CCJs against the five largest airlines in the UK – and Wizz Air – in March this year. 

Wizz was by far the worst – it had 1,601 ‘outstanding’ CCJs with a value of more than £2m.

It told us at the time that it had dealt with hundreds of the judgments and was working its way through the others. However, the court register shows that the figure has now increased to 2,587 ‘outstanding’ judgments against the airline – with a value of £3,197,105. 

Wizz told us it has dealt with 86% of these CCJs – and that these were now incorrectly classified as unpaid.

EasyJet and Ryanair have seen the number of ‘outstanding’ court judgments against them decline over the same period. 

Of the major airlines we looked at, only Tui had seen CCJs against it increase since March. It had 1,359 judgments listed as ‘outstanding’ with a value of £1,558,145. 

‘Outstanding’ court judgments by airline

Figures are for county court judgments that were still listed as ‘outstanding’ on 28 September on Registry Trust – the official register of judgments. *Wizz Air told us the current figure is 2,641, as of 2 Oct. 

What is an outstanding county court judgment?

A CCJ is a court order in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that can be made against individuals or companies if they haven’t paid what they owe.

CCJs can stay on the official register for six years – but they’re removed if paid within one month. When judgments are paid after one month they’re listed as ‘satisfied’. If judgments are not paid they’re listed as ‘outstanding’. 

However, it’s the defendant’s responsibility to let the register know that the debt has been paid. EasyJet told us in March that it had paid any judgments showing as outstanding. Wizz said its CCJs had been ‘classified incorrectly’. Tui also said it would provide evidence to the register that it has paid ‘a large number’ of the judgments. Jet2 told us that it doesn't currently have any outstanding court judgments.

Adjudication scheme rules against Wizz – but thousands wait for judgement

In theory, passengers shouldn’t need to take court action against airlines. Since 2016 they’ve been able to take complaints to adjudication schemes authorised by the CAA to make binding rulings on compensation and other claims. 

Confusingly, there are three separate schemes. The largest, AviationADR, includes easyJet, Ryanair, Tui and Wizz as members. British Airways is a member of another scheme, CEDR. 

For airlines that aren’t members of either scheme, the Civil Aviation Authority will investigate complaints – but its rulings aren’t legally binding.

There were far more complaints about Wizz to AviationADR per passenger from April 2022 to March 2023 than for any other airline – 8,651.

In the same period, AviationADR made a final adjudication on 2,754 complaints. 

It ruled in favour of the passenger 83% of the time, and ordered Wizz to pay £1,707,450, with each complainant receiving £747 on average.

British Airways ordered to pay out over £3m to passengers

British Airways received slightly over half as many complaints to CEDR as Ryanair did to AviationADR – but paid out nearly 10 times as much. 

This is partly because AviationADR has adjudicated far fewer claims. It only ruled on just over 4,000 Ryanair cases – in a period where it received more than 12,000.

CEDR adjudicated on almost 5,000 BA complaints – in a period where it received fewer than 7,000. 

BA’s long-haul flights are also much more expensive – so claims are higher. But the biggest difference is in the very different decisions made by the two adjudicators. 

AviationADR ruled in favour of Ryanair’s passengers just 15% of the time, while CEDR ruled in favour of BA passengers 76% of time. 

The CAA’s PACT scheme favoured passengers, overall, 70% of the time.

Why do different adjudication schemes have different outcomes for passengers?

Consumer uphold rates for AviationADR used to be much higher. In 2017, shortly after the scheme started, it ruled in favour of passengers 69% of the time.

But while the uphold rates for CEDR and the CAA’s PACT scheme are similar now to the figures for 2017 and 2018, those for the majority of airlines with AviationADR have plummeted.

It told us that the fact it now overwhelmingly rules in favour of some airlines is a sign that the scheme is working. It even suggested that the reason easyJet, Ryanair and Tui have been successful at defending claims is because those airlines have ‘engaged the services of leading city law firms to filter cases before they reach ADR’.

It said that this has resulted in a positive result for passengers – because those airlines are now paying out to passengers without any need to go to adjudication. It appears that Wizz has not been as successful in dealing with cases before they reach AviationADR.

AviationADR has long been criticised by Which?, for taking months to reach decisions and, most recently, over errors in its accounts and confusion over who actually owns and controls it. 

CEDR vs AviationADR

CEDR charges passengers £25 if their claim is unsuccessful, while AviationADR is free. This might mean that the BA customers using CEDR typically have stronger cases, as they know they’ll be charged if they lose.

However, Which? has investigated AviationADR cases where it seems that the adjudicator got the decision wrong. 

In March, one passenger, Mattia Zenere, ultimately got compensation from Wizz – despite AviationADR initially defending its decision that he wasn’t entitled to it. 

 Adjudication schemes for passengers – 2022

Figures provided by CAA for Q2 2022 to Q1 2023.

AviationADR response

AviationADR told us that for the 12 months we looked at, 96% of cases were processed within the timeframe set out by the CAA. (That would mean they were dealt with within 90 days of both the passenger and the airline providing all the evidence needed. On some occasions in the past, passengers have complained of waiting for months for airlines to provide the evidence required.)

AviationADR also said that it doesn’t have a backlog of cases and that many of those listed as ‘complaints received’ in our table above were closed – but that this had not yet been recorded.

Civil Aviation Authority enforcement

In July, the CAA announced it was taking enforcement action against Wizz Air ‘following significant concerns over high volumes of complaints about the airline not paying passengers what they are owed’.

In response, Wizz committed to re-looking at claims for replacement flights, hotel costs and other expenses for flights cancelled on or after 18 March 2022. It also accepted that people who had claims from before that date could request them to be reopened. 

Wizz was given until 30 September to contact anyone who might be eligible for payments. The CAA asked passengers not to contact Wizz before that date to give it time to reach out. 

It also said that it has seen a ‘significant reduction’ in complaints received directly from the public about not receiving payment of court judgments from Wizz. 

The CAA currently has no power to directly fine airlines that fail to pay refunds, expenses or compensation. If it needs to take action against an airline, it has to take them to court, but it’s only done this once in 20 years – against Ryanair.

Which? is urging the Prime Minister to commit to legislation to give the Civil Aviation Authority direct fining powers in this year’s King Speech.

What should you do if you think Wizz owes you money?

If you haven’t already, you should make a claim directly to Wizz. If you haven’t had a reply or your claim is refused you can escalate your claim to AviationADR or to Money Claims Online (the small claims court). 

 See here for more information on what to do if your flight is delayed, cancelled and you’re owed compensation or expenses.