While no official announcement has been made yet, the Budflyer blog suggests there’s a strong chance that Air Canada will operate direct transatlantic flights from Budapest, potentially opening a new route to the U.S. soon.
New American route still uncertain
For now, their post doesn’t confirm which major Canadian city Air Canada’s Airbus A321XLR aircraft would fly out of. The Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air also ordered these aircraft in the past but recently cancelled most of them after deciding to scale back its Central Asian and Middle Eastern ambitions to focus on European markets instead.
- Wizz Air backs out of its most advanced aircraft order: What’s behind the A321XLR fleet cut?
According to a recent post, Air Canada is planning new routes using these aircraft, potentially departing from Montreal or Toronto to several European destinations, including Hungary and Budapest Airport, as shown on the airline’s route map.
Commenters on the blog note that Hungary appears so small on the map and the question marks so large that they might also refer to surrounding countries like Slovakia, Czechia, or Poland. However, most of the question marks seem centred over Hungary. Mark Galardo, Executive Vice President at Air Canada, clarified in a comment that Hungary is among the potential contenders.
Commenters also pointed out that flying long-haul routes on narrow-body aircraft like the A321XLR can be uncomfortable, especially since previous nonstop Budapest-New York flights took nearly 10 hours.
A brief history of direct Transatlantic flights
Regardless, it’s promising that Air Canada is considering direct service. Just recently, American Airlines announced plans to resume nonstop service between Budapest and Philadelphia starting next May. The last time travellers could fly directly was via Polish carrier LOT, excluding rare charter flights, but that route was discontinued due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before LOT, MALÉV operated flights in cooperation with American Airlines. In 2011, Delta also joined in with direct transatlantic routes. But all that ended in February 2012 when MALÉV filed for bankruptcy, leading both American carriers to pull out of Budapest and instead boost connections through larger European hubs.
- “Wings to fly” – brief history of the Hungarian airline MALÉV
Today, it’s still possible to reach Canada by air from Budapest, but with connecting flights, total travel time can stretch to at least 11 hours, and in the worst cases, up to 24 hours.
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Orban took over the Budapest airport and he has been focused on giving Hungarians daily service to as many cities as possible in China. I’m not holding my breath waiting for non-stop service to North America. Hungarians you are part of Asia and not the West. Your glorious leader has decided you are Asians or more accurately Little Russians.
Larry, American Airlines has announced the (re) start of direct flights from Philadelphia. This should work well as it’s one of AA’s largest hubs with connecting flights from a slew of provincial airports in North America offering an easy one change routing to Budapest for US (and some Canadian?) flyers. The alternative at present involves a change in (most often) London or Frankfurt which are only served directly from the largest US airports. You can also change planes in Paris, Amsterdam or Zurich but they’re less likely to have direct flights from smaller US cities.