Budapest Airport set for a busy winter season

Recording close to 11 million passengers passing through Budapest Airport during the first three quarters of 2023 – 90% recovery when compared to 2019 – Hungary’s gateway will see a continuation of healthy growth into the winter season, set to be another period of expansion. With 36 airlines flying to 107 destinations, highlights for this winter will see multiple new destinations being added to the airport’s network.

Sunday 29 October saw Ryanair start new services to Alicante (three times weekly), Birmingham (twice weekly), and Tenerife (three times weekly). The addition of the new routes means the low-cost carrier now connects Budapest to 46 destinations in the winter season, offering 1,172 departing flights. Also adding numerous new services is the airport’s home-based airline, Wizz Air, which has begun operations to Cairo (three times weekly), Copenhagen (daily), Glasgow (twice weekly), and Sharm El Sheikh (three times weekly). The new flights see the ultra-low-cost carrier offering almost 1.3 million one-way seats to 48 destinations this winter.

Budapest’s winter is looking considerably busy as a number of routes have been confirmed to continue throughout the season. Notably SunExpress’ twice-weekly service to Antalya, which faces no direct competition, will operate during W23/24. Joining SunExpress’ own connection to Izmir and the airport’s established links to Istanbul and Sabiha Gökçen, Budapest will operate more than 200 departing flights to the transcontinental country this winter. Iberia’s daily operation to Madrid will also remain on the airport’s route map. The high-frequency service gives the Spanish carrier a 32% share of all flights to the Spanish capital from Budapest, offering 28,000 one-way seats throughout the season.

On top of these developments, both Air China and Shanghai Airlines have confirmed that all flights to China will continue throughout W23/24. Connecting Budapest to Beijing, Chongqing, Ningbo and Shanghai, the airport will witness a robust 37% increase in seats to East Asia when compared to 2019. Air Serbia, having launched a summer seasonal flight to Belgrade earlier in the year, and following the success of its return to the Hungarian market, has announced that it will add extra frequency to its service to the Serbian capital and will operate an 18-times weekly service over the winter.

“After the success of the summer season with the airport consistently welcoming over one million passengers every month since March, it is great to see many of our airline partners continuing to flourish in winter,” says Balázs Bogáts, CCO, Budapest Airport. “We are always looking to build on our solid foundations and these new routes, frequency increases and continued services, clearly demonstrate our commitment to offering an ever-expanding selection of wonderful destinations with more choice and availability,” adds Bogáts.