International flights return to Hungarian airport in May!

The flight will connect Pécs, a Southern Hungarian city with Munich and Malta. The Maltese Universal Air plans to resume summer flights between Pécs and Corfu since they flew with high utilisation rates last year. However, the future of the routes is not secure since the airline did not explain why they terminated their flights between Pécs, Munich and Malta between January and May. The local government would like to keep the flights in the winter season, and, in the long run, they would like to welcome low-cost airlines. However, the international airport of Eszék poses a considerable threat to the profitability of the Hungarian airport.

International flights return to Hungarian airport from May

The Pécs-Pogány International Airport was in a deep slumber between 2010 and 2024. It was modernised in the 2000s, but real developments were postponed. Therefore, only one scheduled flight touched it for six months, a route operated by Austrian Airlines. As a result, the Fidesz-led municipal council was pondering about its closure since maintaining it took a considerable amount of taxpayers’ money. In 2019, the opposition returned to the leadership and managed to reopen the airport last year in cooperation with the Maltese Universal Airline.

The reopening of the international airport for scheduled flights was shared as an important success by the city leadership weeks before the 9 June municipal elections. According to Telex, the flights between Munich, Pécs and Malta, and the later-opened Corfu route were competitive and popular. The Malta-Pécs-Munich flight commuted twice a week, while they flew to Corfu once. But in early January, Universal Air abruptly decided to close the directions without giving a proper explanation. The move came out of the blue, surprising even the re-elected city leadership.

No serious problems with the airline

Universal Air said that they would like to resume the Malta-Pécs-Munich flights from May and would reopen the Corfu destination in the summer period. Planes will commute on both routes once a week. Telex reached out to the airline but received no answers concerning the issue.

Marina Molnár from Tensi Pécs, a local ticket sales partner, said they received little training for their cumbersome system, but apart from that, there were no serious problems with Universal Air. She said the utilisation of the flights varied between full-house and 30%, but their Corfu flight was very popular in the summer. Disruptions occurred, but nothing special compared to other similar airlines.

Pécs’s local government said the airline had only a few bookings for the winter, while the summer period was a success. They added that the airline fulfilled all commitments written in their bilateral agreement. Concerning the local government’s investment in the project, they said that they supported the project with local media support—which did not have considerable costs—, free bus service, which cost HUF 8 million (approx. EUR 20,000) in 2024 and some maintenance work and equipment purchases at the airport, which were long-needed developments regularly postponed for 10-15 years.

The airport needs significant developments to welcome bigger planes and host e.g. low-cost airlines. In 2021, the city leadership sold 51% of the shares of the airport operator company and the AIR-HORIZONT Nonprofit Ltd. for HUF 1 billion (EUR 2.5 million) and a promise that the Hungarian state’s HAMM Ltd. would join them in developing the airport with HUF 10-11 billion (EUR 25-27 million). For example, they would like to build a longer and wider runway to welcome Wizz Air, Ryanair, or EasyJet planes. But nothing has happened yet.

As a result, only smaller jets can land at the airport, like the planes of Universal Air. The local government keeps searching for new partners and flight launches for 2026 or later. Márk Dragovácz, the CEO of the airport operator, said their short-term goal is to keep the airport operating even in the winter period. The long-term aim is to transform the airport into a base.

Eszék (Osijek)–Pécs rivalry on the horizon?

However, the international airport of Pécs-Pogány has a serious competitor in the neighbourhood, the international gateway of Eszék in East Croatia, which is helped by state intervention and already welcomes low-cost airlines like Ryanair. Furthermore, the Croatian national airline could keep its Munich route even in the winter schedule, operating it twice a week. Moreover, the Hungarian state aims to extend the M6 motorway to the Eastern Croatian city. Such a connection would reduce travel time to Eszék from Budapest and might increase the airport’s regional competitiveness. In that case, it will be more difficult for Pécs to remain in the market.

Read also:

• Budapest airport shuttle to be much cheaper and will touch a new downtown station – read more HERE
• Ryanair cancels key Budapest route: Grave impact on travel and tourism – details in THIS article