TLVtraveler

I was doing a quick TLV-BUD and BUD-TLV last week.
I usually travel with other carriers but am not a stranger to Wizz and have travelled with Wizz before on this route several times last year and was surprised by the good level of service and the brand new planes.

Last week I had to be in BUD for work related meetings, I booked a last minute Wizz flight from TLV. At the beginning everything was good, swift ground operations and on-time boarding. Once I got onboard I was shocked by the state of decay the cabin was in, several seats were broken including the one I was in - the seat recline latch was broken and basically was only held in place by the pax's knees seated behind me. This was the case with other seats in the cabin as well, I informed one of the FA and she told me she will make sure to inform the ground crew of the issue once we get to BUD as it's their hub. Other than that the flight was good.

On the return flight the seat backs were made of some sort of plastic compound and almost all were cracked due to stress from pax knees over the years.

I don't know how Wizz are able to fly their planes without getting grounded over safety issues. Maybe the aviation authorities are more lax in Hungary but broken seat backs are a safety risk in case of an emergency. I think they need to refresh their cabins to the modern safety standards.

Personally I really like their operations and have flown with them extensively on this route but given the state of decay some of their planes are in I must reconsider my future business with them. What do you guys think? have you ever witnessed broken seats on this carrier?

Romanianflyer

I'm a regular Wizz flyer as well, but never really noticed this. Only some generic wear and tear on the seats of the planes they have longer in service.

In general, to me what you describe is an issue that can be encountered on any airline. However cramped the seats are, they are still overall in much better shape than all the US legacy carriers have to offer, and I have seen plenty of broken stuff too on board the likes of LX or KL. I guess it's perhaps down to bad luck on your last flights? Getting the older planes, the wrong seat?

TLVtraveler

I absolutely agree with you regarding US carriers, especially AA domestic MD-80's that are older than me and are in a bad shape both cosmetically and mechanically (causes a lot of delays due to unexpected need of repairs).

I've also seen plenty of broken stuff on other carriers but it usually was isolated issues with a specific seat/piece of equipment and it usually meant that that seat will be out of service until replacement/repair which expedited the needed repair.
With wizz the issue seemed more wide as it was not an isolated issue with only one/couple of seats, it seemed like many of them were broken and in urgent need of repair and when I brought it to the attention of the FA she didn't seem alarmed to me which makes me wonder how serious the carrier is regarding safety issues.
Personally I'm not a big fan of US carriers but when it comes to obeying FAA orders or anything to do with safety they never cut corners, especially when a pax brings such issue to their attention.

I checked the tail numbers of both birds and they are indeed much older compared to the rest of the W6 fleet I had flown before but it's still no excuse to jeopardize safety. I tweeted W6 regarding the issue but have my doubts if they will take it seriously.

I think I selected a perfect seat since I had unlimited recline which enabled me to take a lovely nap the guy behind me on the other hand had a much less comfortable flight I'm sure.

mmff

Care to share the tail numbers?

TLVtraveler

Sure,
One was HA-LPK that was delivered to W6 at 2007.
A 9 year old plane is still considered relatively new in the airline industry but in all honesty the way LCC run their planes it's more like 15 years with a regular carrier
I only googled the other one while at the airport so I have no info regarding its tail number but it was also around 9 years old if I remember correctly.

I guess I had some bad luck this time, usually W6 run brand new planes on this route...