There is complete chaos in European air transport, no pilot, no information, no accommodation, the passengers of the Budapest-Marosvásárhely flight were in a desperate situation.
Wizz Air canceled the early Wednesday evening flight from Budapest to Marosvásárhely, which would have returned late in the evening, so the Marosvásárhely-Budapest flight was also cancelled. In addition, the airline did not provide any other information to the stranded passengers - apart from a few text messages.
At the time of departure to the airport, Wizz Air informed the passengers in a message that the Marosvásárhely flight would take off with a two-hour delay, which was later changed to three hours and then permanently cancelled.
As is known, meanwhile, the Bálványosi Summer Free University is in full swing at Tusnádfürdő, so half of the passengers on the plane departing from the Hungarian capital yesterday would have traveled to the festival.
According to Mandiner's information, among the passengers stuck in Budapest were Tamás Deutsch and Ákos and his band, who were going to Tusványos: while the politician was going to the panel discussions, the Ákos were going to their concert tonight.
Tamás Deutsch said: unfortunately, disorder, even chaos, has become a system in European air transport.
" I have a way to experience this, since as an EP representative I travel by plane as naturally as by other trolleys or trains to my workplace. So I have experienced firsthand that delays and sometimes flight cancellations have unfortunately become the norm. The truth is that it is unworthy as it is," stated , adding that flying is a service that is not cheap, even on the so-called low-cost flights. As he put it: people do not choose this form of travel because they want to, but because they are trying to get to work, or go on a family program or vacation.
According to Deutsch, it is shocking that the European Union, which is otherwise able to regulate so strictly, is not on the side of the European people on this issue, but on the side of the completely incapable behavior of the airlines.
As for yesterday, he explained: Wizz Air is actually only a hair away from Ryanair today, which in his opinion is the lowest point of low-cost air travel.
„In addition, this airline likes to emphasize its Hungarian aspect. With great respect, I would like to say that in the light of the past period, they should not emphasize this too much, because it brings shame to Hungary rather than a reason for pride," he said.
The politician revealed: he was among the few passengers who got the closest to the plane. They were only forty meters away from boarding when they were suddenly turned back, saying that the staff's working hours had ended. As he said: he understands that there are strict rules for how many hours a pilot, co-pilot or air crew can work in a row, but it doesn't cross his mind that
why do people look stupid
„As far as I know, this plane flew from Athens. It was then possible to know exactly when they left Athens, or even when they were heading towards Athens, that this working time frame would expire by the time they reached Budapest. Despite this, they had fun there with the passengers of a plane full to the brim, because this is really the best way to have fun with people," he stated.
Deutsch explained: there were important academics and performing musicians standing there, who would have had a program in Tusványos the next day.
„I was also supposed to participate in two round table discussions, which I can't go to now. There has never been an example of this, where a person has to cancel his lectures due to the vomiting behavior of a multi-company," he added.
In the meantime, it turned out: Gábor Kubatov was also supposed to fly to Marosvásárhely on Wednesday night, but due to the cancellation of the flight, he did not make it to Tusványos, so his program was cancelled.
Mandiner also reached Ákos Kovács, who stated right at the beginning that many people were upset last night because the flight to Transylvania was simply not started by the airline.
„We experienced the same difficulties as any other passenger, we all had a bad time," the musician stated, and then added: "You don't expect much from a low-cost airline, but maybe that's all they can do to get you to the desired location decently. "
The Ákosék's plane was supposed to leave Budapest at 7:45 p.m., and as he says, when they left for the airport from home, it was known that a two-hour delay was expected.
„Despite this, the check-in takes place at the same time as if the flight took the normal time, so we waited on the spot for hours. You can still joke about this, we hung out and talked. The delay was later changed to three hours. Even later, everyone was ordered to the gate, and when we were already there, between eleven and twelve-thirty in the evening, it became clear that the plane would not take off at all," Ákos explained to our newspaper.
„There is chaos in many places in international aviation, and this can be experienced by all travelers. Just as everyone else had things to do, we also have work to do, and we happen to have an important performance in Tusványos tonight.
Because of what happened, minibuses and cars had to be organized for the entire crew at night, we are still traveling, we crossed the border, they were diverted from the highway between Temesvár and Déva, we have been standing for an hour. It will be a miracle if we arrive at the originally announced start of the concert.
It's simply nonsense that you can't count on a service that you paid for months in advance, and passengers are left without meaningful information until the last moment," said the singer.
As he said: the whole team would have gone by plane to replace the 14-15 hour bus ride, because in recent years they have always traveled this way to the locations in Székelyföld. They thought they would try to avoid this now. Unsuccessfully.
„It's simply not true that they didn't know this beforehand. It's all like the Pest jokes about Albania in the eighties. The majority handled the situation calmly, but there were some who shouted, a lady was crying next to us, she was so desperate. We held a crisis team there, we discussed what we had to do in order to be able to hold tonight's concert. Most of the equipment was already on the way, the actors drove off in a larger car, half the band slept at my place for a few hours, then we started at dawn," explained Ákos.
According to the singer, it has been known for a long time that the Bálványosi Summer Free University is a very attractive event, and many people from Hungary come every year. "This whole situation is terribly amateurish and unworthy," he stated in this regard.
Lately, the news has been full of canceled flights, many people are stuck outside their vacation destination, and some don't even get there. In addition, in many cases, people do not receive reimbursement of costs or any kind of compensation, as they do not now.
„I don't want to whine, for us the concert is important, for others it is different, let's say your vacation, which you have been saving for all year, or just to see your children and relatives. It seems to me more and more that the service character of services in Europe has ceased, and that Europe is losing its European character.
It doesn't seem like it's a series of coincidences," said the musician.
One of the journalists of Demokrata was also traveling to Pór yesterday, and he would have traveled on the return route, on the Marosvásárhely-Budapest line, at 10:20 p.m. in the evening. But the plane with which he was supposed to arrive home did not even take off, it turned out later, because the flight that was supposed to take off from Budapest did not take off either.
„They kept us waiting for three hours. Already in the afternoon, we received the SMS that the plane would leave two hours later, so we waited at the airport. The boarding time had just arrived after the two-hour delay, when they unexpectedly informed us that we would have to wait for another hour," said György Szalma. He added: after midnight, when they were already very close to the departure time, the Romanian airport staff suddenly informed them that the plane would not take off at all, because it had not even taken off in Budapest.
„Everything was up in the air until the last moment," noted the journalist, who emphasized that the airport staff was very kind and helpful despite the chaotic conditions - on the contrary, with the airline.
As he explained: the luggage had already been prepared to be loaded onto the plane, so it seemed all along that the plane coming from Budapest would arrive, but in the end it did not.
According to the journalist, many families with small children and elderly people were forced to sleep at the airport, because the airline did not provide accommodation for the passengers who had gone to the airport.
The "luckier" ones, including him, took a taxi into the city at one in the morning and tried to book a hotel room.
„Everyone could only guess whether there would be a refund, we said among ourselves that we would ask for an invoice for everything to be safe.
I would definitely emphasize that we did not receive accommodation from Wizz Air, but - apart from a few text messages - we did not receive any other notification," said the journalist.
On Wednesday, there were also a lot of flight delays and cancellations among the planes arriving or departing from Budapest. The list of delayed or canceled flights on July 24, 2024 (Wednesday) is as follows - writes the website Käsettagépem.
Cover image: Wizz Air flights are hopelessly delayed
Source: MTI/Zsolt Czeglédi
