Wizz Air boss hit with £60 fine by own staff for breaking hand luggage rules
The new UK boss of Wizz Air was stung by the airline's stringent baggage policy.
The new managing director of the Hungarian airline's UK wing, Yvonne Moynihan, admitted that she got caught trying to bring an oversized bag onto a Wizz Air flight.
It seems that the strict budget airline rules that play such a big part in the average Brits' holiday experience also apply to the people running the show.
"I got overcharged by Wizz Air a few weeks ago for my bag not fitting in the thing. €70 (£60)," she told the Mirror.
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At the start of this month, Ms Moynihan took the reins of the Hungarian airline's UK wing, succeeding Marion Geoffroy as managing director of Wizz Air UK.
She sat down with the Mirror at the beginning of her tenure to discuss a wide range of topics, including her plans for the airline's future, new routes launching later this year, and Wizz's ambition to keep pushing forward as the world's greenest major airline (in terms of CO2/e emitted per passenger).
One of the issues of the day was hand luggage, following a major EU ruling earlier this month. While not yet law, the legislative change means that airlines such as Ryanair, easyJet, and Wizz Air, which currently charge significant sums for a second bag, will likely be unable to demand big fees for an additional cabin bag in the future.
"We highly object, along with the other airlines. It essentially erodes consumer choice," Ms Moynihan said of the ruling. The new budget airline boss echoed the words of Ourania Georgoutsakou, managing director of Airlines For Europe, likening the new regime to "going to the cinema and being forced to have Coke and popcorn with your ticket".
Ms Moynihan is strongly in favour of airlines being able to charge passengers for oversized hand luggage, despite having recently fallen victim to Wizz Air's own policy.
If your cabin bag is larger than 40 x 30 x 20 cm and you haven't paid for Wizz Priority, you will likely be charged at the gate to check it into the hold, which will cost more than if you had pre-booked a larger bag. The full bag rules and charges for Wizz Air can be found on its website.
Ms Moynihan predicted that a watered-down version of the EU legislation would become law at some point in the future. When it does, Wizz Air and other airlines like it are likely to bump up the fees they can charge for luggage to cover the shortfall.
Right now, Wizz Air makes just shy of 50% of its income from ancillary aspects of the journey, such as charging for seat reservations and bags.
"I always look at Wizz Air flights to see who is wearing backpacks, and I see that people are travelling light. Passengers are happy to travel light. If you're going to force a passenger now, we're going to change the price," Ms Moynihan said.
She also warned that many of the airline's planes simply would not fit the extra bags that the law change would allow for. "We have 239 passengers onboard, we can't fit 239 pieces of luggage. The problem is at the gate, you're going to have to take luggage from them," she said.
Aside from potential changes to hand luggage rules, there is a lot happening at the airline. Not least, new routes.
As of last month, Wizz Air is flying four times a week from Gatwick to Wroclaw in Poland. It will be flying from the same London airport to Warsaw in Poland and Medina in Saudi Arabia from the beginning of August.
Over in the West Midlands, Birmingham is now linked up with Rome three times a week as of June, with new flights to Sibiu and Suceava in Romania later this year.
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