Record Number of Aircraft Handled By HungaroControl

Never before has the volume of traffic in Hungary's airspace been as high as in 2024, with HungaroControl's experts handling more than 1.1 million aircraft in the year, almost 6% more than in the previous year, the Hungarian air traffic service provider told MTI on Thursday.

According to the information, the year 2024 brought the highest air traffic in Hungary's history, with a total of 1,144,000 aircraft in Hungarian airspace, which is an average of more than 95,000 aircraft per month.

This figure represents an increase of 5.99% compared to 2023, which was also a record year, and a 21.08% increase compared to the traffic in 2019, before the Covid pandemic. During the peak period, July-August, HungaroControl Plc. handled more than 120,000 aircraft.

The largest share of air traffic, almost 84%, is accounted for by aircraft transiting through Hungarian airspace, with HungaroControl's experts navigating almost 960,000 such aircraft last year.

This is an increase of more than 5% compared to the previous year and 26.62% compared to 2019.

HungaroControl also measured an increase in the number of aircraft landing and taking off at Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport in 2024. In addition, the air navigation service provider also handled almost 60,000 small aircraft that entered the airspace from regional, smaller airports, it explained.

The company said it is preparing to handle the year-on-year increase in traffic with reinforced capacities to ensure safe air transport. Last year, nine air traffic control students obtained their licences, another eleven foreign air traffic controllers joined HungaroControl and three national air traffic controllers who had been temporarily posted abroad returned to the company. Traffic is also forecast to be strong in 2025, and the operator will introduce a number of additional air traffic professional, human resource and technological improvements to ensure that it is managed properly.