Exclusive:
Wizz Air UK’s managing director, Marion Geoffroy, sat down with the Mirror to discuss what was coming down the runway for the Hungary aviation firm in the coming years
Wizz Air is employing more AI customer service reps to speak to passengers and smart cameras to aid baggage handlers as it celebrates hitting 100million UK passengers.
Just before the budget airline reached the milestone last week, Wizz Air UK’s managing director, Marion Geoffroy, sat down with the Mirror to discuss what was coming down the runway for the Hungary aviation firm.
AI was a big topic, ahead of Wizz Air introducing AI assisted cameras to track baggage handlers’ movements at its aviation base at Luton Airport later this year or early in 2025. The tech is designed to speed up the process of getting bags onto planes and increase the turnaround time of aircraft. While there are no current plans at Wizz to introduce automated alarms to stop passengers sneaking onto planes ahead of their turn as United Airlines has done, Ms Geoffroy enthusiastically said she would look into such a scheme.
One area where the airline definitely is investing resources when it comes to AI is its customer services centre, which was rated the worst in the UK earlier this year. In a bid to change that reputation, Wizz customers facing cancellations, over five hours of delays and rescheduling now receive an automated telephone call from a bot called Amelia with real-time information.
Ms Geoffroy believes that customers are keen to receive such calls when they are caught up in travel chaos, and is pushing ahead with more customer service bots.
“We’ve also got more than 600 agents dealing with customer service who are there to either reply emails or phone calls. But as things develop, we’re introducing much more innovation. People like to handle themselves through an app actually – when it works – but it’s something that we want to improve. AI is a good answer to that. It’s very accurate and we have thousands of interactions every day with customers, so we can build a portfolio of solutions that actually develop very, very quickly,” the MD told the Mirror.
“We’re still looking at more improvements for next year. It’s in the last two years, it’s already been improved a lot in terms of the chatbot and availability of the chatbot on the website. They’re also being developed, all the time. It’s not something that we established four years ago, three years ago, and then stopped developing. It feels that there are more mass disruptions events for which we need absolutely need to these these tools.”
Wizz Air is adding new aircraft to its fleet, including the Airbus A321neo and A321XLR. Plans are underway to add 500 more planes by 2030, allowing the airline to expand its range of destinations. One recently added route was from London Gatwick to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Ms Geoffroy told the Mirror that the airline will continue looking East in coming years and is in discussions with other Middle Eastern countries about moving into new destinations. She said that Wizz would not be crossing the Atlantic anytime soon, despite the extended range of the new aircraft allowing them to do so. The aviation boss also addressed questions about Wizz Air’s ‘All You Can Fly’ membership, which gives passengers the ability to travel on eligible Wizz Air flights for 12 months for 499 euros (£414).
It has come under intense criticism from climate campaigners, who argue that it encourages flying – despite it being the most polluting form of mass transport. Alethea Warrington, senior campaigner at the climate charity Possible, called the scheme “grotesque and deeply stupid”.
Speaking two weeks after the scheme’s size was doubled to 15,000 passengers, MsGeoffroy argued that it did not encourage anyone to fly when they wouldn’t, and that it simply filled up spaces in empty aircraft that would’ve flown anyway.
“We are delighted with the success of our new ‘All You Can Fly’ membership – especially in the UK, which was the first market to sell out. While we are not disclosing specific membership numbers or flights made at this stage, we have been hugely encouraged by the strong interest shown in the scheme, and we are happy to see that in over 90% of sessions AYCF members who searched for flights so far were able to find availability on their routes of interest,” she said.
‘’We launched the service to provide our customers hundreds of spontaneous travel options for a fixed price, giving them freedom to fly whenever is convenient without paying extra. From the adventurous travellers to the digital nomads, we believe this membership makes travel easier for frequent flyers and connect people with new people and places, and the uptake has demonstrated that there is a demand for convenient travel solutions at competitive prices, especially as customers look for ways to maximise their travel experience.
“The new product not only helps travellers discover Wizz Air’s extensive network but, in fact, contributes to maximising the load factor during the last 72 hours before existing flights. High load factor is a crucial efficiency driver and leads to reduction in emission intensity. Wizz Air is proud to have the lowest carbon emissions intensity among our airline competitors, making it the most sustainable flying option.”
Wizz Air marked its twentieth anniversary this year, having made its inaugural flight on May 19, 2004. In the UK, the airline now operates up to 168 flights a day across 95 routes from Aberdeen Airport, Birmingham Airport, Glasgow Airport, Leeds Bradford Airport, London Luton Airport and London Gatwick. Wizz Air currently employs more than 900 people in the UK and is poised to launch a fresh recruitment drive for pilots.
