Russell Quirk and his family had their flights to Faro cancelled within three hours of departure (Picture: SWNS/Reuters)
A man has caused a stir after deploying bailiffs to Luton Airport to recover money owed to him from Wizz Air.
Russell Quirk, 55, was left £3,900 out of pocket when he had to buy last-minute flights to Portugal when the airline cancelled his just three hours before take off.
The dad-of-four spent more than £2,700 on next-day flights, so his family would not miss their summer holiday.
Already missing the first day of the summer holiday, he did not want to also lose around £6,000 on hotel and other travel costs.
The dad-of-four was left £3,900 out of pocket (Picture: Russell Quirk/SWNS)
The new tickets to the city of Faro, in the Algarve region, cost him more than four times the original £700 fee.
‘I had no alternative. I could either take the best available alternative or lose out on £6,000,’ Russell stressed.
‘We were all ready, the bags were downstairs and the cabs were called. I do not know how airlines work, neither do Wizz Air it seems.
‘It is utterly ridiculous that they could not see the demand. The only flight I could find was out from British Airways which cost roughly £2,700, four times as much as the original flight.
His family made it to Faro after booking next-day flights with British Airways (Picture: Russell Quirk/ SWNS)
‘When I got back the saga started again. The initial tickets were £700 roughly.
‘They have a statuary job under EU law to refund in seven days.’
Russell, who was travelling with his three daughters and wife, was reimbursed two months later in July 2022 for his initial ticket price.
But he demanded Wizz Air pay for all the excess costs they had caused the family.
He lodged a claim with the county court but said Wizz Air ignored his emails and letters and communication from the county court.
After months of waiting for the airline to make it right, Russel ended up sending in the bailiffs, giving a new meaning to the term ‘airport dad’.
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He gave them the address of Luton Airport, telling them ‘off you go’, even joking they could get him an aircraft if they refuse to pay up.
‘They banged on the door and said to pay the £4,500,’ the passenger added.
‘Their option was to hand over the money or the bailiffs would take it in goods, whether that be chairs, tables, computers or an aircraft.’
Wizz Air has since apologised to the family and said it is working to ensure that ‘our customers’ experience is better this year’.
A spokesperson told the BBC: ‘In the summer of 2022, due to unprecedented levels of disruption across Europe and the UK which affected the entire industry, we fell short of our own aspirations and our customers’ expectations.
‘When things went wrong, we did not react quickly enough to manage the high volume of customer claims that resulted from this disruption.’
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‘Hand over the money or the bailiffs would take it in goods, whether that be chairs, computers or an aircraft.’