WIZZ AIR has been forced to pay out £1.24m in refunds to passengers and tweak policies on how it handles flight disruption, after action from the UK's aviation regulator.

The carrier had to review thousands of customer compensation claims in July after the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) received a huge number of complaints that many had been falsely refused.

Under European laws, carriers must reroute and provide appropriate support and care for passengers whose flights have been cancelled or delayed.

Some 25,000 claims were re-examined as part of the investigation, with extra payouts given in 6,000 cases. The claims included disputes over fees for replacement flights, transfers when disrupted flights were rerouted to different airports and hotel costs.

The CAA said Wizz Air had made sufficient changes to its policies to ensure that it consistently complied with legal obligations to its customers.

Paul Smith, consumer director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: "This is good news for passengers and our concerns have been validated by the outcome of our actions."

(c) 2024 City A.M., source Newspaper