Hungary's competition watchdog fines Wizz Air for misleading communication

Hungary's competition watchdog has imposed a fine of 770,000 euros ($839,916) on Wizz Air for misleading communication, the authority said on its website on Saturday.

Hungary's competition authority said Wizz Air breached professional due diligence and was misleading in how it described its automatic check-in service and pushed consumers towards more expensive packages.

Wizz Air was not immediately available for comment.

The fine comes after Wizz Air lowered its annual profit forecast earlier this week after reporting a 44 per cent drop in its first-quarter operating profit, partly owing to costs related to Pratt & Whitney engine troubles and one-off wet leases to bolster capacity.

The low-cost airline, which flies an all-Airbus fleet, has faced challenges related to Pratt and Whitney RTX engines, with 46 of its planes set to be grounded for inspections this summer, placing constraints on capacity.

European airlines have faced a difficult first half of the year because of spiralling costs and normalising customer demand after an initial post-pandemic boom. Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and Ryanair all reported challenging second quarters.

UK-based Wizz Air carried 5.9 million passengers in July, with a load factor of 93.8 per cent as the company had to delete 1 per cent of its scheduled flights due to worldwide outages.