China is the ‘new’ New York: New Eastern city connected to Budapest
The newly-acquired Budapest Airport is proud of the multiple air connections between Budapest and China. Meanwhile, one of the most-read Hungarian air travel news outlets was sad because destinations like New York seem farther away than ever from Budapest.
New cargo flight
According to Budflyer, the cargo city in Budapest extended its network with another Chinese city, Ezhou, a prefecture-level city in eastern Hubei Province having more than 1 million inhabitants. The new cargo route is served by a B747 plane transporting express packages, e-trade goods and general goods. Budapest is the third European destination from the Chinese city after Frankfurt and Liége. The operator is the SF Airlines.
Routes between Hungary and China are opening one after the other. However, many Hungarians believe the Hungarian government should establish new air connections not only to the East but also to the West. Years passed since the last Transatlantic flight ceased operation, and it does not seem like the once-existing direct connection between the USA, Canada and Hungary will be re-established soon.
SF Airlines in Budapest. Source: FB/Budflyer
Lots of flights from Budapest to China
Chinese flights flood Budapest in the summer season, economx.hu, a Hungarian economy-focused news outlet, wrote. There are 13 direct flights from Budapest to China weekly with destinations like Beijing, Shanghai, Ningbo, and Chongqing. From July, that network will extend to Shenzhen, Guangzhu and Xian, and the number of flights carrying passengers between China and Hungary will grow to 21 per week.
In 2023, there were 123 thousand passengers on the planes. That number may rise to 300 thousand this year.
Budapest Airport is proud of the many Chinese connections. They wrote the following ad to promote the Chinese flights:
“It hustles and bustles like never-sleeping New York, but the groups of senior citizens doing thai chi in the parks give the tranquil feeling of being in a countryside suburb. Discover China and its cultural heritage spanning thousands of years, with flights by Hainan Airlines, China Southern or Shanghai Airlines!”
A bejegyzés megtekintése az Instagramon
Nevertheless, many Hungarians are still waiting for Transatlantic flights.
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Featured image: illustration
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6 Comments
It’s inexplicable why there isn’t at least a direct flight to JFK every other day if Budapest can support THIRTEEN flights a week to China, including many to secondary cities. JFK is after all the main airport for New York, is a huge hub in itself and grants access to the entire North American continent with direct onward flights. I cannot believe that relations are that bad between Hungary and the USA that either party would seek to sabotage the existence of a direct flight. Even in the depths of the Cold War there were flights between New York and Moscow! I understand that North America can be easily reached with a single stop in Europe, but you’d think there would be enough traffic between Budapest and New York alone to provide the commercial rationale for a flight. Malev flew the route in the 1990s back when the purchasing power of the typical Hungarian traveller was many times lower than today and Budapest was barely on the map as far as US tourists were concerned. Have US carriers been given instructions to leave Budapest off the route map?
This is great news for the Chinese communist colonizers to overwhelm little Hungary.
What good is this to the Hungarians? Are they going to go to China for holidays?
And you can be sure it’s 100% safe, no hobos, no winos, no graffiti, no violent robbers, no sucker punching random strangers, no psychos pushing you onto the subway track, etc. (all almost always courtesy of the “basketball people”)…
America is lost. It’s gone. Much as I profoundly dislike the ChinComs, it makes sense to pivot toward them and leave what’s left of America to figure out how many “genders” there are as it celebrates “unity in diversity.”
Milan, Italy, also had great flights coming in from China. Milan also had a large number of early pandemic deaths from the Wuhan virus. There is no value for Hungarians in the Belt and Road intiative. Remember that when you see Chinese police patrolling in Budapest along with Hungarian police. Such a foolish move.
This still doesn’t explain why Hungary can support so many direct flights to China. I’ve no desire to travel there as a tourist, nor do I need to go for business. I know of no one that has travelled there for either purpose, other than ethnic Chinese expats. And there aren’t all that many of them, even if the stats show the largest community in central Europe. I do however know of a ton of people that have been to the States in the last 5 years. These flights HAVE to buy subsidised by the Chinese government otherwise there’s no way they could survive. Reports I’ve read suggest load factors even on flights to Beijing and Shanghai are as low as 50%, there’s no way that’s commercially viable.
On a separate note, I wouldn’t be ready to write off the US so readily. It has its fair share of problems like so many places in the western world right now but its economic performance of late is stellar, while it’s still a shining beacon so many people would like to emigrate to, including from my homeland the UK, from where a nurse can leave for 3x the salary and enjoy a vastly better standard of living.