Summer air chaos throws Budapest into turmoil
A lot of sectors have suffered from Covid, but tourism was probably the most affected by the restrictions. Now that people can travel again, tourism is facing new difficulties this summer. Air chaos has spread all over the world, but how affected is Budapest?
Chaos by Wizz Air and at Budapest Airport
After Covid, airports tried to make up for the lost income. Many airlines tried to make money by removing the seats from their planes and attaching cargo to them using a special process, Mandiner reports. For example, the Hungarian-based low-cost airline Wizz Air did the same. It operated several similar flights between Budapest and Chinese destinations on the order of the Hungarian state, transporting medical equipment to Hungary.
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In addition, the summer chaos has reached Budapest Airport, too. In July, passengers have been locked into a hot bus. A Monday evening flight to London-Luton did not receive take-off permission. Therefore, all passengers had to leave their flight even though they had been sitting in it for an hour. They put the passengers in a hot bus for half an hour. 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. Moreover, while Budapest’s Ferihegy had hundreds of destinations on offer before the pandemic, only six destinations were directly accessible from the capital during the driest months.
Lufthansa’s cut-back affects Budapest
Recently, two airlines announced that they will cancel thousands of flights, which also affects Budapest. Lufthansa and British Airways will cut back their autumn and winter schedules. They are primarily canceling domestic flights that have multiple daily routes, in order to make the situation easier for passengers. However, Lufthansa’s decision already affects the Hungarian market. No more Frankfurt-Budapest and Munich-Budapest flights will take off in the coming period. Instead of the originally planned 150 flights, Lufthansa is planning 107 flights between Frankfurt and Budapest. In addition, the airline plans 103 flights between Munich and the Hungarian capital instead of 116 in the first month of autumn, roadster.hu reports.
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Budapest Airport is prepared
In the summer months, the Budapest Airport experienced 10-15 flight cancellations per week for operational reasons, which is overall a very low indicator compared to the total number of flights. Budapest Airport says that due to the chaos at other European ariports, arriving flights may not bring the checked luggage of the passengers on board. In the optimal case, the luggage left at the departure station will arrive on the same day, on another flight. However, it can also happen that the luggage arrives in Budapest 1-2 days late. Departing flights were also typically punctual during this summer. According to the operator’s records, while in June, 68 percent of the planes took off on time (or at most 30 minutes late), the same indicator was 69 percent in July. Moreover, the delay did not exceed 35 minutes on average for the other flights either. It is also important to mention that an average passenger gets through the control procedure and the queue in just 15 minutes.
Budapest Airport continues to do everything to ensure that the service is continuous and of high quality, the operator emphasized to Mandiner.
Source: Mandiner, roadster.hu