LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's regulator has ordered Wizz Air (LON:WIZZ) to change its processes after it received high volumes of complaints about the Hungary-based airline not issuing passenger refunds for cancelled flights.
The Civil Aviation Authority said on Thursday that after engaging with the regulator, Wizz had signed undertakings to formalise the changes, which include reconsidering claims from the last 15 months which had previously been rejected.
The airline's compliance with the revised policy will be monitored over the coming months, the CAA said.
The enforcement action taken by the CAA sent a clear message to all airlines that they must meet their obligations, the regulator's joint-interim chief executive Paul Smith said.
"We will not hesitate to step in if we believe that airlines are not consistently doing this," he said.
"We will continue to watch the situation closely to check that passengers receive what they are owed and that Wizz Air’s policies have improved."
Last spring and summer, staff shortages at airports and constrained air space caused flight disruption and cancellations across Europe for Wizz and other airlines.
Wizz said in a separate statement that it had launched a series of initiatives to reduce cancellations and had invested 90 million pounds ($117 million) to improve operations given the ongoing air traffic control challenge.
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