In the past year, 13 million passengers have passed through Budapest Airport, a traffic record in the history of the Hungarian gateway. Experiencing its third year of double-digit passenger traffic growth, and holding its position as one of Europe’s fastest growing major airports, Budapest welcomed 1.6 million more passengers last year than in 2016, a robust 14% year-on-year increase. Over one million passengers per month travelled through Budapest from April-December – the first time the airport has achieved these figures, showing a distinct reduction of seasonality.
At the end of 2017, Budapest offered more than 850 direct weekly flights to 125 destinations across 45 countries on 44 carriers. Heightened by the addition of 25 new routes last year, the airport has recorded an impressive 34% increase of destinations on its route network map in the last five years. Air freight also developed positively in 2017 ‒ processing 127,000 tons which represents a 13% increase and another high for Hungary’s capital city airport.
What’s new for BUD in 2018?
Looking ahead at another year of strong growth, Budapest will offer one million more seats in 2018. The airport has already announced eight new routes and added yet another carrier to its roll-call when American Airlines makes a welcome return. Notably resuming Hungary’s US ties from May, the oneworld member will operate a daily seasonal service to Philadelphia, joining LOT Polish Airlines’ long-desired new links to New York JFK and Chicago O’Hare.
easyJet kicked off the route launches this year with yesterday’s inaugural of its daily service to Berlin Tegel, while home-based Wizz Air will further increase Budapest’s route network during S18 timetable with three new connections; Stavanger, Athens and Santander. The start of the summer season will also see Ryanair double the airport’s operations to Cyprus when the low-cost carrier commences its three times weekly service to Paphos.
New airlines and routes
Airline Destination Start date Frequency
easyJet Berlin Tegel 9 January Daily
Wizz Air Stavanger (new) 15 March Twice-weekly
Wizz Air Athens 25 March Four times weekly
Wizz Air Santander (new) 26 March Three times weekly
Ryanair Paphos (new) 27 March Three times weekly
Wizz Air Basel 3 May Five times weekly
LOT Polish Airlines New York JRK 3 May Four times weekly
LOT Polish Airlines Chicago O’Hare 5 May Twice-weekly
American Airlines Philadelphia 5 May Daily
With considerable increase of flight frequencies, Budapest will also see extensive growth on a number of existing successful routes:
Airline Destination Frequency/Capacity increase
Lufthansa Frankfurt Five times daily to six times daily
Flybe London Southend Twice-weekly to three times weekly
LOT Polish Airlines Warsaw Chopin Four times daily to five times daily
Finnair Helsinki Twice-daily to three times daily
Turkish Airlines Istanbul Atatürk Twice-daily to three times daily
Aeroflot Moscow Sheremetyevo Twice-daily to three times daily
Iberia Madrid Seasonal to year-round operation
“Our airport is better connected than ever before and we continue to grow as we focus on Budapest as a popular destination for both tourism and trade – ultimately leading to higher demand from each sector,” explains Jost Lammers, CEO, Budapest Airport. “Our double-digit growth is not a given in such a competitive environment, therefore we cannot be complacent and expect extra capacity to fall into our laps. We start the year with the extremely significant expansion to the US and with worldwide connectivity being crucial in today’s economy we must always strive for more,” adds Lammers.
