Wizz Air chief blames Brexit for recent chaos at airports

WIZZ Air has blamed Brexit for staff shortages causing recent chaos, as it warned of a near double-digit jump in ticket prices.

Chief executive Jozsef Varadi said tickets were already more expensive than pre-pandemic prices and were poised to rise by “upper single digits” from July.

“Our bookings are showing strong performance in the first fiscal quarter, with average fares trending higher at low single digits versus [the] same period in F20 [financial year ending March 2020],” Mr Varadi said.

“For fiscal quarter two, we expect fares in the upper single digits ahead of the equivalent period F20.”

Mr Varadi’s comments came as he blamed the recent spate of flight cancellations from rival airlines on the impact Brexit has had on recruitment. Britain’s airports have been left reeling over the past two months amid travel chaos, while thousands of holidaymakers have been stranded overseas.

Mr Varadi, who co-founded the lowcost airline, said the post-brexit immigration policy was putting “a lot of strain on the labour market” and the Government should consider offering aviation the same exemptions as agricultural workers. He added that staff shortages did not lie within pilots or cabin crew, but with airport staff.

On Monday, easyjet grounded 60 flights, while British Airway cancelled around 120 flights amid a shortage in the relevant workers needed to manage flights.

Mr Varadi said: “There is understaffing in air traffic control management. There is insufficient staffing at airports and in ground handling. The solution

‘There is understaffing in air traffic control. There is insufficient staff at airports and in ground handling’

is that the supply chain needs to perform to standard. That is what we are missing.”

Updating on its annual results for the year to March, Wizz’s revenues more than doubled to €1.7bn (£1.5bn).

However, pre-tax losses widened from €566.5m to €641.5m over the period despite passengers rising from 10.2m to 27.1m.

Such has been the travel disruption that FTSE 250-listed Wizz warned investors it could post an operating loss for the first quarter of the next financial year. Shares in the airline fell almost 10pc to £24.99.