As air travel across Europe returns to and even exceeds pre-pandemic levels, a fresh ranking from compensation platform AirAdvisor sheds light on which airlines are frustrating passengers the most in 2025 — and why low fares do not always mean a smooth trip.
How AirAdvisor built its 2025 airline ranking
The latest list is based on data for 2024 and focuses on 15 major European carriers, scoring them across a set of service and safety criteria rather than just price.
AirAdvisor analysed over 830,000 passenger reviews, 13 airline policies and revenue-per-seat data to rate European carriers across nine key criteria.
The nine criteria behind the scores
Instead of relying on a simple star rating, the study breaks airline performance into multiple dimensions that directly affect travellers:
- Flight reliability (cancellations and major schedule changes)
- Punctuality and delays
- Onboard comfort (seat pitch, cabin conditions, Wi‑Fi and extras)
- Safety record
- Ticket pricing and overall affordability
- Passenger reviews
- Professional and industry reviews
- Quality and availability of airport lounges
- Policies for travelling with pets and families
To gauge affordability, the study looked at RASK (revenue per available seat kilometre), a standard way to measure how much revenue an airline makes per kilometre flown per seat, which in practice helps indicate how aggressively an airline prices its tickets.
Wizz Air: cheap tickets, tough trade-offs
Among the “worst” of the 15 ranked carriers, the Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air lands in third place. That does not mean it is unsafe or on the brink of collapse — far from it. The ranking highlights a gap between rock-bottom fares and the overall travel experience.
Wizz Air is rated as Europe’s cheapest airline and one of the safest, yet it faces some of the continent’s harshest customer feedback.
A strong showing on safety and cost
On safety, Wizz Air performs solidly, standing as the third most reliable carrier in the EU in this category. In 2024 it significantly cut its flight cancellation rate, dropping from 5% to just 0.5%, a major improvement for a budget airline that runs an aggressive route network.
For price-conscious travellers, Wizz Air stands out as the most affordable European airline in the study. For many routes, particularly between Central and Eastern Europe or from secondary airports, it is often the only low-cost option with daily or near-daily frequency.
Where Wizz Air loses points
The issues appear when passengers rate their actual experience. According to the dataset used for the ranking, Wizz Air scores very poorly in three areas:
- Comfort: placed second from the bottom among the 15 airlines
- Family and pet travel: ranked last for customer reviews in these categories
- Professional recognition: third from the bottom for industry awards and expert assessments
Passengers complain about tight seat pitch, strict cabin baggage rules and inflexible fees. Families travelling with small children or pets often describe the process as stressful and opaque. These weak spots drag down Wizz Air’s overall score despite gains in safety and cancellations.
The Wizz Air trade-off is clear: strong safety and low prices versus a bare-bones experience that many travellers rate poorly, especially when flying with children or animals.
Other airlines at the bottom of the top 15
Air Europa: reliable flights, mixed feedback
Spanish carrier Air Europa appears in the bottom part of the list with a score of 5.33. Its operational performance looks relatively solid. In 2024, the airline recorded no accidents, few cancellations and limited delays. Passengers can expect decent onboard comfort, roughly in the middle of the ranking, with complimentary snacks and drinks still available on many routes, a rarity among low-cost rivals.
The problems come from perception and value. AirAdvisor notes that Air Europa’s weaker scores show up in:
- Ticket prices, which many passengers see as high for the level of service
- Customer reviews, which are patchy and often negative on customer service
- Professional reviews, which rate the product as unremarkable
- Lounges and family travel options, where the airline trails its peers
So while flights usually run on time and safely, passengers do not feel they are getting standout service for what they pay.
LOT Polish Airlines: sliding down the table
LOT Polish Airlines, once comfortably mid-table, has slipped from 8th place in the previous edition to 14th, with an overall score of 6.22. On paper, LOT looks fairly respectable: it had no safety incidents in 2024, scores at or near the average for comfort and passenger reviews, and performs reasonably well for family travel.
The airline even improved its punctuality compared to the earlier survey, achieving a 76% on-time performance in 2023 and refining that further in 2024. For business travellers flying regularly between Central Europe’s capitals, LOT remains a practical choice.
Yet the ranking shows serious weaknesses behind the scenes:
- Below-average scores for reliability, including disruptions and schedule changes
- Poor professional reviews from industry experts
- Third from the bottom for airport lounge quality
For frequent flyers used to premium lounges in Western Europe, the LOT experience on the ground can feel dated and inconsistent, especially on older routes or smaller airports.
The top of the table: who did well while others stumbled
The same methodology that pushed Wizz Air and its peers into the “worst” bracket also crowned three airlines as Europe’s best performers.
| Airline | Country | Score | Key strengths | Main weaknesses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aegean Airlines | Greece | 10.3 | Safety, comfort, lounges, family and pet travel | Beaten by one rival on customer reviews |
| Finnair | Finland | 9.89 | Comfort, safety, lounges, passenger satisfaction | Lower rating for reliability |
| Iberia | Spain | 9.78 | Safety, lounges, family and pet policies | Weak customer review scores |
Aegean Airlines, the Greek flag carrier, earns the top spot for the second year running, scoring strongly on lounge quality, comfort and safety, especially for families and pet owners. It comes second in Europe for customer reviews.
Finnair shines with its clean cabins, polite crews and high-quality lounges, but loses marks on reliability, including cancellations and disruption management. Iberia improves by three places compared with the last ranking, driven by strong results in safety and family and pet-friendly policies, yet continues to lag in customer ratings.
What these rankings mean for everyday travellers
The AirAdvisor ranking shows that “worst” does not mean dangerous. All airlines studied maintain strong safety records by global standards. The main differences lie in reliability, transparency and comfort, especially when travelling as a group or with special requirements.
A low score often reflects frustration with customer service, fees and how airlines handle disruptions, rather than fears over aircraft safety.
For a solo traveller with only a backpack, Wizz Air’s mix of low fares and improved cancellation rate might still be a sensible choice, especially if departure times are flexible. A family of four with checked bags, a stroller and a pet, on the other hand, may find that the add-ons, stress and lack of support erase any savings.
How to read airline rankings without being misled
Rankings like this can be confusing, as they group together very different business models. Legacy airlines with hubs and lounges compete on one sheet with ultra-low-cost carriers that focus purely on price.
Before choosing a flight based on such a list, travellers can ask themselves a few practical questions:
- Am I travelling alone or with kids, elderly relatives or pets?
- Can I manage with only hand luggage, or will I pay multiple baggage fees?
- Is a possible delay or last-minute change acceptable for this trip?
- Do I value a lounge, flexible ticket and better legroom enough to pay more?
A short weekend hop where you only carry a small bag might justify booking the cheapest carrier in the ranking. A long-awaited family holiday with connections and tight timings may call for paying extra to fly with a higher-rated airline that offers stronger reliability and customer support.
Key terms that shape airline rankings
Two financial and operational terms appear often in discussions around airline performance. RASK, or revenue per available seat kilometre, measures how much money an airline earns for every seat flown over one kilometre. Lower RASK often points to a more aggressively priced budget airline, while a higher RASK tends to signal a premium product or less efficient cost structure.
Punctuality, usually expressed as the percentage of flights arriving within 15 minutes of schedule, is another critical metric. An airline can cancel very few flights yet still cause chaos with routine delays on busy routes. For frequent flyers, a seemingly small difference in punctuality can mean many hours lost each year in airport waiting areas.
These underlying numbers help explain why an airline like Wizz Air, praised for price and safety, can still sit among the “worst” in a ranking that cares deeply about how passengers feel once they are actually on the journey.
