After asking pilots to work even when they are ‘fatigued,’ a top airline executive has prompted a safety concerns.
Wizz Air’s CEO, Jozsef Varadi, has come under criticism for urging employees to reduce the company’s ‘fatigue rate.’
The budget airline boss in a video said, ‘We are all fatigued but sometimes it is required to take the extra mile. We cannot run this business when every fifth person of a base reports sickness because the person is fatigued. The damage is huge when we are cancelling the flight. It is the reputational damage of the brand. And it is other financial damage because we have to pay compensation for that.’
Mr Varadi’s statements were condemned last night by Martin Chalk, general secretary of the British Airline Pilots’ Association, who said he was ‘shocked that an airline CEO would advise actions so contrary to even a basic safety culture’.
He urge Mr Varadi to ‘swiftly clarify that Wizz Air would fully support any pilot who does the right thing for the safety of their passengers, crew and aircraft by not flying if they are fatigued’.
The uproar erupted after the Hungarian-based airline revealed it had lost £550 million in the year to the end of March, despite sales more than doubling to £1.4 billion.
Wizz Air flew over 27 million passengers last year, up from 17 million the previous year.
Mr Varadi said he expected the airline to produce its ‘largest ever summer flying program and the fastest growth in the industry’ in an upbeat speech.
Wizz Air, on the other hand, expects to lose even more money between April and June as a result of rising fuel prices and continuous airport turmoil.
Since the Covid travel restrictions were removed in March, other major airlines such as British Airways and easyJet have also experienced delays.
Sajid Javid lashed out at the business yesterday, claiming it was ‘about time [airline] took more responsibility for sorting its own challenges out’.
‘We haven’t observed similar concerns in France, Germany, or Italy,’ the Health Secretary added. They, like us, have very low unemployment rates, therefore they face similar labor market issues. The business community could have done a better job. ‘The industry got caught out.’
‘Supply chain issues are affecting all airlines, in particular staff availability and welfare,’ a Wizz Air spokesman stated. In this context, going the extra mile for all our customers to minimize disruption was a main topic of this briefing.’
The airline’s ‘first priority,’ they stated, is safety, and they have a ‘strong and responsible crew management system.’