Popular airline cancels flights last minute to carry out safety checks on planes

A POPULAR airline has cancelled a number of flights at the last minute due to safety checks being carried out on its planes.

Wizz Air has confirmed it has made adjustments to flights "on selected days between certain destinations".

The airline is yet to announce which flights have been impacted, but will be offering full refunds to affected passengers.

A statement said "accelerated inspections" are being carried out on several of its geared turbofan (GTF) engines.

It comes after US aerospace firm RTX said the engines, used on Airbus planes, were found to have a problem involving contaminated power metal.

At least 1,200 Pratt & Whitney GTF engines were thought to require "accelerated removals and inspections".

It is understood the engines will be disassembled, inspected and replaced if needed.

A spokesperson for Wizz Air apologised to passengers over the "unplanned event out of our control".

A statement added: "Wizz Air announces today that due to the accelerated inspections of several of our GTF engines mandated by Pratt&Whitney, we have made adjustments to the network resulting in cancellations of some flights on selected days between certain destinations.

“Passengers on the affected flights will be offered an alternative flight schedule, provided full refunds in the original method of payment, or offered 120% of the original fare in airline reservation credit. In the instance a booking was created via a travel agency or an online travel agency, we advise customers to reach out to the agency which owns the booking to make necessary changes to the reservation.

"Wizz Air also recommends checking the spam folder for emails about possible schedule changes."

The statement continnued: "We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused by this unplanned event out of our control, but the safety and security of our passengers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority.”