April: Nearly a Million Passengers at Budapest Airport

April was a record month for the Hungarian capital's Ferenc Liszt International Airport in the sense that it achieved the highest passenger numbers in the 25 months since the outbreak of the pandemic. In the fourth month of the year, a total of 997,454 passengers used the airport, bringing the annual number of passengers to almost three million, according to a statement by the management company Budapest Airport.

The Easter long weekend also produced the previously predicted numbers: 6% more people traveled during the holiday than on other days in April. This means that April saw a 1400% increase in passenger traffic at Budapest Airport, compared to the same period of 2021.

This April was special in other ways too, as the airport welcomed several returning flights: Air Baltic offers direct flights to Riga, Arkia to Tel Aviv and WizzAir to Warsaw for the traveling public. The summer schedule also sees Ryanair returning to Corfu, Chania, Rimini, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes and Zadar, WizzAir to Abu Dhabi and Podgorica, Norwegian to Stockholm Arlanda and Transavia France to Nantes, while Ryanair has new flights to Burgas, Stockholm and Alghero.

Budapest Airport currently offers direct flights to 109 airports in 99 cities, served by 31 airlines. Budapest Airport’s destination map is continuously expanding, with more routes and flights expected to be launched during the summer.

In terms of cargo volumes, aerial logistics was also significantly affected by the lockdowns and cancelations in the Far East in April, with global air freight volumes falling by 8%. However, contrary to the international trend, Budapest Airport recorded a 3.3% increase in April, with the BUD Cargo City handling a total of 17,245 tons of cargo.