Wizz Air and extraordinary circumstances

Extraordinary circumstances and Wizz Air

Wizz Air flies a dense Central and Eastern European network through airspace that is often capacity-constrained, so ATC flow restrictions and weather are genuine causes of some of its delays and, for the flights they actually affected, extraordinary. Airport strikes, airport closures and security incidents are also outside the airline’s control. But Wizz Air’s most visible disruptions have come from within: schedule reductions announced days ahead, crew availability and aircraft rotations planned with no slack. None of those is extraordinary — the Regulation treats crew planning, staffing and the airline’s own schedule as inherent in running an airline.

A schedule reduction announced 14 days or more before departure carries no compensation at all, only the refund or re-routing choice; announced later, it is an ordinary cancellation for which compensation is due unless the specific cause was extraordinary. Technical faults on Wizz Air’s aircraft are within its control under Wallentin-Hermann, and a delayed inbound aircraft only excuses the outbound if the first delay had an extraordinary cause that reasonable measures could not have absorbed.

When Wizz Air names an extraordinary cause, ask for the specific restriction or event, its time and its airport. A general reference to “ATC problems in Europe” is not evidence for your flight.

The legal test

Article 5(3) of Regulation 261/2004 (EU261) excuses Wizz Air from paying compensation only if it proves two things: that the disruption was caused by extraordinary circumstances — an event that is not inherent in the normal exercise of an airline’s activity and is beyond its actual control — and that it could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken. Both limbs are for Wizz Air to prove, for your specific flight.

Usually extraordinary

• Severe weather at the departure, arrival or en-route airports that actually prevented the flight.
• Air-traffic-control restrictions, capacity regulations, ATC system failures and ATC strikes, for the flights they held.
• Airport closures, runway incidents and security threats.
• Bird strikes (Pešková) and foreign objects on the runway.
• Strikes by third parties outside Wizz Air’s control (airport staff, ground handlers not employed by Wizz Air, ATC).

Usually not extraordinary

• Technical faults discovered during maintenance or on the day (Wallentin-Hermann, van der Lans), other than hidden manufacturing defects or sabotage.
• Crew shortages, crew sickness and crew running out of legal duty hours (TAP C-156/22).
• Strikes by Wizz Air’s own pilots, cabin crew or ground staff, including wildcat strikes (Krüsemann, Airhelp v SAS).
• Aircraft rotations and late inbound aircraft, unless the first delay itself had an extraordinary cause.
• Wizz Air’s own IT systems failing, schedule changes and over-booking.

Reasonable measures

Even for a genuine extraordinary event, Wizz Air must show it did what a reasonable airline would: used spare aircraft or crew where it had them, re-routed you at the earliest opportunity including on other airlines, and did not cancel the next day’s flights merely to reset its schedule. A knock-on cancellation hours after an ATC restriction lifted is where this limb most often fails.

What to ask Wizz Air

Ask for the specific event, its time and place, whether it applied to your flight rather than the day in general, and what measures Wizz Air took. Keep the answer: it is the evidence AviationADR (UK flights) or a court will assess. Refund, re-routing and care are owed in every case — extraordinary circumstances only ever affect the €250, €400 or €600 compensation. The general rules, with the case law cause by cause, are on the extraordinary circumstances page; ATC reasons are tested on the air traffic control page.