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Budapest Airport to lay off more staff
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The travel restrictions introduced on account of the coronavirus pandemic continue to exert drastic impacts on passenger traffic at Ferenc Liszt International Airport.
The expected annual passenger figure has decreased to the level seen 17 years ago, and the airport operator expects a traffic shortfall of around 90% during the fall and winter months as well. Since the beginning of the crisis, Budapest Airport Zrt., the airport operator, has taken all possible measures to protect jobs.
However, a headcount reduction amongst the employees of the BUD group has become inevitable, in the interest of the long-term and efficient operation of the company and to protect the remaining jobs.
The coronavirus pandemic presents a huge challenge for the aviation industry; the busiest airports in Europe have all registered a traffic reduction of around 70-90% since the outbreak of the pandemic. 1.15 billion aerial passengers have vanished on the continent up to August 2020, due to the travel restrictions introduced on account of the pandemic.
Expected passenger traffic at many airports, especially in our region, is reducing to levels seen 15-20 years ago; a fraction of what was originally forecast for this year.
Based on the estimate of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), passenger traffic at European airports will not reach the levels seen before the crisis during the next few years either.
Traffic at Ferenc Liszt International Airport decreased by 99.3% in April, when the pandemic broke out in Europe, compared to the same period in 2019.
Although passenger numbers picked up slightly during the summer months, increasing to nearly 400 000 in August from the less than 10 000 registered in April, the new travel restrictions introduced as of 1 September once again reduced passenger traffic to the level seen at the beginning of the summer. Currently, less than 3000 passengers use the airport per day, which is 6% of the traffic recorded last September. Based on the expected additional flight cancelations and reduction in passenger traffic, Budapest Airport expects annual passenger traffic to be around 5.5 million this year, one-third of our initial plan.