European Aviation Problems Also Affect Budapest

The onset of the summer season, the dynamic growth of post-Covid air traffic and the unprecedented staff shortage across Europe is creating huge challenges for airports across the continent. For weeks now, there have been reports of flight cancellations, delayed departures and arrivals, and ground handling disruptions. Thus, Budapest Airport, the management company of the Ferenc Liszt International Airport of the Hungarian capital, has published some information and advice to passengers.

In terms of passenger traffic, it is important to stress that the challenge at the airport is never the total number of passengers, but rather the handling of peak traffic, when many aircraft depart or arrive in a short time. In Budapest, this typically means early morning, midday and evening/night periods. Budapest Airport has prepared for the summer season in all aspects – technological innovations, infrastructure and human resources – to ensure smooth passenger handling and quality service.

However, it is very important to underline that besides Budapest Airport several other partner companies are involved in passenger services at the airport. In order for airport processes to run seamlessly, all the companies involved must provide the same quality of service, as the processes are interdependent and interrelated. If there is a stoppage or slowdown in any process it can affect the entire passenger service process, the communiqué says.

It adds that the severe staff shortages at other European airports, which mainly affect ground handling companies – which also carry out check-in, baggage handling and boarding – are causing serious disruptions to flight handling and thus traffic management. This is compounded by additional staff shortages at airlines and also strike action throughout the aviation value chain. Given that the international situation is already having an impact on traffic and passenger flows at Budapest Airport, the company would like to provide the following information to help its passengers.

Cancellations and delays
Currently flight cancellations have only a minor impact on the operation of Budapest airport. Generally speaking, there are 10-15 per week at Ferenc Liszt International Airport due to operational reasons, regardless of the airline – overall this is a very small number versus the total number of flights. Cancellations are affected by two factors: in case of aircraft operating multiple routes in a given day, delays accumulated by the end of the day result in the last flight of the aircraft not departing because the host airport is already closed. The other reason is that other airports are unable to serve the flight due to staff shortage, so the flight does not arrive in Budapest.

Passengers should keep an eye on the information provided by the airline, so that if a flight is cancelled, they can rebook to another flight in time. In addition, the flight information available on the Budapest Airport website provides accurate information about the expected arrival and departure times, possible delays or cancellations, according to the information published by Budapest Airport.