Historic Low Traffic at Budapest Airport

The border closure from September 1 and the strict rules of border crossing have had a major impact on passenger traffic at Ferenc Liszt International Airport.

The number of passengers using the airport dropped to the level of last June again: this September, Budapest Airport handled 88,173 passengers in total, which is a 94.2% reduction year on year. The slowdown is also significant compared with summer months, as passenger traffic decreased by almost 78% compared with August. The last time when such a low September traffic level was registered at the airport was in 1973.

This year, up to September 30, 2020, the airport was used by 3,679,288 passengers in total.

As a report by the airport management company points out, major reduction of passenger numbers due to the coronavirus pandemic is seen all over the world; until the end of 2020, the global decrease of passenger traffic is expected to reach 69% versus the previous year, with the ‘disappearance’ of close to 1.7 billion air passengers.

BUD Cargo City and air freight to and from Budapest, however, appears to be immune to the pandemic: while at some airports, the cargo operation has stopped almost completely, the airport of the Hungarian capital only registered a 2.7% reduction of cargo throughput year on year. Budapest Airport handled 11,080 tons of air cargo in September.