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Exciting new flights announced from Hungary to Germany and Malta: the 1st is to take off in days
The Maltese Universal Air announced new flights from Debrecen International Airport to popular spring, summer and autumn destinations Malta and Germany’s Leipzig. The good news is that the first flight is to take off on 30 March, next Sunday. The airline started operating routes from Pécs last year, although they closed their Munich and Malta destinations between January and May without an explanation. The first flight from Pécs will take off in May.
Universal Air was active in Pécs before
As detailed in THIS article, Universal Air’s first Malta-Pécs-Munich flights started to carry passengers weeks before last year’s 9 June municipal elections. That network was later expanded to Corfu, Greece. The former route was flown twice, while the latter once a week. However, the airline closed the routes without an explanation in January, planning to reopen them in May. Municipal leadership and tourism experts believe the reason behind the closure was the low plane utilisation figure in the winter season.
New routes announced from Debrecen
Now it seems the Maltese airline eyes new destinations from another rural Hungarian airport, Debrecen. The Eastern Hungarian city’s airport suffered significant losses last year, losing almost all its regular flights and watching the closure of Wizz Air’s local base in July 2024.
The management did not give up and continued negotiations with multiple airlines. It seems they were successful in that. In the last few days, several airlines announced new routes from Debrecen airport. Lufthansa is expanding its services between the second-largest Hungarian city and Munich from three to five times a week. Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air will resume flights between Debrecen and Larnaca, Cyprus, starting 1 April, operating twice a week until 25 October.
Furthermore, Debrecen’s airport is set to introduce several new charter flights. These include destinations like Crete (Heraklion), Türkiye (Antalya), and Tunisia (Monastir), which will become accessible from the Hungarian city starting in the coming months. The Smartwings group, through its Hungarian subsidiary, is also adding new routes from Debrecen. Starting in early June, flights will be available to Barcelona, Spain, and Tirana, Albania, once a week each.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary also mentioned a possible expansion to Debrecen (and the Lake Balaton region), provided Budapest Airport offers lower airport fees and provides predictability for the Irish budget airline.
Universal Air also comes to Debrecen
According to turizmus.com, Universal Air will also operate flights from Debrecen, creating direct connections to Malta and Leipzig, the most populous city in Saxony. Based on their statement, they will carry the passengers on De Havilland Canada Dash 8 planes. The first flight from Malta to Debrecen will take off next Sunday. Based on plans, it will land in the afternoon at the Eastern Hungarian airport and continue its journey to Leipzig to return to Debrecen later. On 31 March, they will return to Malta. The flights will commute on Thursdays and Sundays in the summer season.
In 2024, passenger traffic in Debrecen reached 220 thousand. Wizz Air operated a scheduled flight between Debrecen and London, while the German Lufthansa between Munich and the Hungarian city. In April, the Hungarian budget airline will restart its flight from Debrecen to Israel’s Tel-Aviv.
The municipal council of Leipzig welcomed the new flight in a statement and talked about a possible dynamic air traffic expansion, which may benefit Leipzig and its service sector.
Debrecen’s municipal council said 2024 was a tourism peak year with more than 690,000 guest nights. 234,000 of that figure was spent by foreign visitors in Debrecen.
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