This budget airline has a poor reputation and it’s justified

The seat

I was expecting a monstrosity of a plane held together with masking tape. However, it looks smart and new, with blue plastic seats in a three-three formation. Those thin, hard seats don’t recline and they’re not very big – with a horrible 28 inch (71 centimetres) pitch and only mildly less horrible 17.7 inch (45 centimetres) width. For context, Qantas narrow-body planes give you 30 inches (76 centimetres) pitch. Fortunately, the seat next to me is empty, so I don’t feel the full brunt of the airline trying to squeeze 40 rows into a narrow-body plane.

Entertainment + tech

Wizz Magazine, one of the last holdouts in the dying world of the in-flight mag, features stories of a light-sabre academy in Iceland, Ferrari’s legacy in Bologna and the secret underground in Brussels. It’s a decent effort, elevated by the fact there’s no charging point or Wi-Fi.

Service

The crew are pleasant and efficient – perhaps over-efficient when the safety announcement is rattled off as quickly as possible. However, seatbelt signs are kept on bafflingly long through zero turbulence, and the cabin is heated to the point where I suspect the passengers are being cooked as an extra food option.

Food

The magazine promises a variety of rather dismal-looking meals, including a beef noodle soup, an optimistically labelled “tapas plate” and a bowl of cheese polenta from a Dr Oetker packet. The reality is two dry-looking cheese croissants available for the entire plane. I nobly leave the croissants to someone else, feasting instead on a Snickers and a 187-millilitre bottle of red wine labelled “Made in the European Union”. This costs an annoyingly high €9.50 ($16.40), and the final indignity comes in a screw cap that won’t unscrew. I have to hack it apart with a pen to access my precious wine of unidentified nationality.

Sustainability

Wizz Air aims to cut its CO² emissions by 25 per cent before 2030 and offers an offsetting scheme and travel footprint calculator. It also boasts that its young fleet and policy of trying to fill every plane has led to one of the lowest emissions rates per passenger, per kilometre of any airline in Europe*.

One more thing

Much of Wizz Air’s success comes from offering flights to airports off the usual tourist circuit. Suceava (Romania), Kosice (Slovakia), Samarkand (Uzbekistan), Lublin (Poland) and Ohrid (Macedonia) are among dozens of destinations routinely ignored by other airlines.

The price

My £13.99 ($29) fare plus £8 ($16.50) administration fee flight in January ended up costing £68.95 ($141.90), once a reasonable-sized carry-on bag and the nebulous administration fee were added.**

The verdict

While not quite as bad as expected, Wizz Air is still towards the bottom end of Europe’s budget carriers. Tiny seats, meagre food and fee-gouging justify its poor reputation.

Our rating out of five

★★

The writer flew at his own expense. See wizzair.com

*For more information about air travel and sustainability, see iata.org

**Fares are based on those available for travel three months from the time of publication and subject to change.