Like some airlines, Wizz Air has to cancel flights over the recent Jubilee bank holiday, which coincides with schools' half-term break because of the shortage of staff. According to the full-year results on Wednesday, Varadi said: "Now that everyone is getting back into work, we need to take down the fatigue rate.
We can't run this business if every fifth person of a base reports sickness because the person is fatigued. We are all tired, but sometimes it is necessary to take the extra mile. Varadi said that the damage is huge when we are cancelling flights, it's huge. It is reputational damage to the brand and it is the other financial damage, because we have to pay compensation for that. The European Cockpit Association, which has pushed for union recognition at Wizz Air and shared a short clip of Mr Varadi's address, said that the comments encouraged pilots to fly when fatigued, and called for regulators to step in.
According to Martin Chalk, general secretary of the British Airline Pilots' Association Balpa, said fatigue has been shown in many studies to have a negative effect on a person's thinking and decision making, similar to alcohol No-one supports pilots or other safety sensitive staff working with alcohol in their system, and that air crews should not fly and should not be required to fly if they are in a state of fatigue, which could endanger passengers or aircraft.
Wizz Air denied that Mr Varadi was speaking to all staff, despite the fact that he was specifically targeting pilots. Our crew unavailability has been very low, at 4%, according to a statement by the company. In this context, going the extra mile to minimise disruption was discussed.
This does not mean that there is a compromising of safety. Safety is our first priority, and Wizz Air and the airline industry are highly regulated.