Budapest Airport listed as 6th worst airport in Europe

Hopper Inc, an online travel agency has collected the 10 worst airports in Europe with record flight delays and cancellations and Budapest Airport is the 6th on their list. 

As greekcitytimes.com reports, successive delays and constant cancellations await travellers at European Airports. At most airports in northern and western Europe, this is a daily issue. However, there are some airports that are on the top of the list in terms of flight delays and cancellations.

Budapest Airport is the 6th worst airport

According to the list compiled by Hopper Inc, these are the top 10 worst airports:

1. Brussels Airport (BRU)
   Brussels, Belgium: 72% of flights delayed and 2.5% cancelled
2. Frankfurt International Airport (FRA)
   Frankfurt, Germany: 68% of flights delayed and 7.8% cancelled
3. Eindhoven Airport (EIN)
   Eindhoven, Netherlands: 67% of flights delayed and 1.8% cancelled
4. Luton Airport (LTN)
   London, UK: 66% of flights delayed and 2.7% cancelled
5. Lisbon Airport (LIS)
   Lisbon, Portugal: 65% of flights delayed and 4.8% cancelled
6. Liszt Ferenc International Airport (BUD)
   Budapest, Hungary: 65% of flights delayed and 2.1% cancelled
7. Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG)
   Paris, France: 62% of flights delayed and 3.1% cancelled
8. Schiphol Airport (AMS)
   Amsterdam, Netherlands: 61% of flights delayed and 5.2% cancelled
9. Cote D’Azur Airport (NCE)
   Nice, France: 60% of flights delayed and 3.4% cancelled
10. Gatwick Airport (LGW)
    London, United Kingdom: 59% of flights delayed and 1.4% cancelled

At Liszt Ferenc International Airport, 65% of flights are delayed and 2.1% cancelled. With these figures, the airport in Budapest was listed as the 6th worst, with Brussels Airport being in the first place. However, it is worth noting that the above figures refer to percentages, i.e. what percentage of flights are delayed or cancelled. In absolute terms, the most delays are recorded at London Heathrow (51 percent). As the main reason for the chaos at European airports, the portal names staff shortages.

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Passengers had to spend the night at Budapest Airport

As we have written before, on 26 June, passengers had to spend the night at Budapest Airport. About 150-200 passengers could not collect their luggage. Therefore, they had to spend the night in the completely empty building. As it turned out, the staff had gone home earlier. Hence, there was no one to unload the planes. One of the planes was a low-cost Tel Aviv-Budapest flight. According to a passenger, families with small children and even babies had to spend the night at the airport. In addition, they did not receive any assistance.

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A family was separated

According to another shocking story, even a family was separated. The extreme case was revealed by a Hungarian family who wanted to return to Budapest on 22 June on an EasyJet flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport but their flight was cancelled. As an alternative, some passengers bought a ticket on the Wizz Air flight from Orly Airport the same evening, which finally took off with a negligible delay. Allegedly, the reason was the lack of air traffic controllers in Austria and Switzerland. Eventually, one-half of the Hungarian family returned home with this flight. However, several passengers – including some members of the separated family – needed to figure out another solution due to the lack of seats on the Wizz Air flight. In the end, the remaining 8 people took a Ryanair flight home from an airport 100 kilometres away from Paris.

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Update

Budapest Airport: maximum 30-minute delays 

In June, 68% of flights departed on time or maximum 30 minutes late. Moreover, 98% of flight delays happened by reasons beyond the competence of Budapest Airport (e.g. reasons related to traffic diversion or airlines, delays in arriving flights). In general, 10-15 departing flights were cancelled per week in June for airline operational reasons. Budapest Airport said that they do not have accurate information about the reasons for flight cancellations, those are the responsibility of the airlines.