Budapest Airport Closes 'One of Most Successful Years in History'

Last year, almost all the “symptoms” of COVID were successfully eliminated from the airport’s operations, as reflected, among other things, in passenger numbers. Passenger traffic exceeded 1 million every month since March; Budapest Airport thus recorded 14,701,080 passengers by the end of the year, and this year, it expects the full recovery of the record number of passengers registered in the year before the pandemic.

Last year, 131 direct flights by 39 airlines were available from Budapest, including four Chinese cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Ningbo, and Chongqing, which led to an increase in business travelers, but leisure travelers continue to account for a significant share of traffic. Overall, the number of non-Schengen and Schengen passengers increased by 30% and 15% respectively in 2023.

The most popular destinations last year were London and Istanbul. The company’s airline development team is working on securing new connections, with the main objectives being to connect South China and India and to re-launch flights to North America.

The volume of air cargo also kept growing. The 201,306 tons registered represent an increase of 3.8% compared to 2022 and 48.5% compared to 2019. Budapest Airport and the BUD Cargo City have thus been able to further strengthen their role as a regional hub, while at the same time, the number of cargo flights has not increased in the last 11 years.

This result is due to Hungary’s strategic location, Budapest Airport’s exceptional cargo infrastructure and the work of the cargo community, as well as the steady growth in integrator traffic, dedicated cargo flights, the cargo transported on the lower decks of direct Chinese passenger flights, which returned last year, and the growth in e-commerce goods from China, the airport notes.