A record week of ‘firsts’ for Budapest Airport.

Wednesday 4th April 2012

Hot on the heels of last week's news including the first Jet2.com flight arriving from Leeds Bradford, Budapest Airport is bracing itself for a record week of inaugural services with the start of a further three new routes for the Hungarian capital over the next few days.

On Monday 02 April, Budapest Airport saw the arrival of the first seasonal airBaltic flight from Riga. The route was originally operated during summer 2011 and its return has been warmly welcomed by Budapest Airport. "The Riga route was a great success last year," said Kam Jandu, Director of Aviation for Budapest Airport. "We're very proud that airBaltic - the biggest airline in the Baltic countries - has chosen to operate the route again this summer." airBaltic flights to Riga will operate up to five times weekly (Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri & Sun) until 26 October.

On Wednesday April 4th Dutch airline Transavia.com, a member of the Air France/KLM Group, will commence its new direct, scheduled services between Budapest and Amsterdam. The new flights will operate four-times weekly (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun) utilising 189-seat Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Tickets are available to book now at www.transavia.com, with round-trip fares starting from just €79. Transavia.com is a brand new airline at Budapest with the Amsterdam route having previously been operated by both Malev and KLM, which remains with its three times daily service between Budapest and Amsterdam. Transavia.com's strategy is to respond to growing demand for city trips and short breaks. Bram Gräber, Managing Director-Chairman Transavia.com said: "Flights to Budapest perfectly complement our route network and further strengthen Transavia.com's position in Eastern Europe."

Prague-based low cost airline SmartWings will commence its six scheduled weekly flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle on Friday April 6th. The SmartWings' Paris services will be followed later this month by twice weekly scheduled flights to Barcelona, with weekly charter services to Heraklion, Burgas, Zakinthos, Corfu and Rhodes starting throughout June.

Also on, Wednesday April 04, Wizz Air will welcome a 6th Airbus A320 to its fleet of Budapest-based aircraft. With this new arrival, the third addition to its fleet in less than three months, Wizz Air has the largest Budapest-based fleet of any carrier in Hungary.

Despite the Hungarian national airline, Malev, declaring bankruptcy and ceasing services in February, Budapest Airport is enjoying a successful 2012. This summer the airport will host 36 airlines, compared to just 33 last year, with almost the same number of destinations. Already this year Wizz Air has commenced two weekly flights to Dortmund in Germany and Aegean now operates flights four times weekly to Athens. Ryanair announced an exciting return to Budapest Airport commencing services to an intended total of 31 European destinations. Air Berlin also re-entered the market with a daily service to Berlin which has now been increased to 11 frequencies per week offering a good product for business travellers.

Volotea will provide three weekly services to Venice from 01 June and from 02 June Blue1 will operate twice weekly to Helsinki in Finland. In addition, Tarom will increase its Bucharest frequency to three times daily and from 19th April and TAP will increase frequency to Lisbon from seven to eight flights per week Lufthansa also increased their capacity and will offer almost ten percent more seats from Budapest than summer 2011. This increase includes the introduction of new routes to Hamburg and Berlin.

About Budapest Airport:

Budapest Airport Zrt. operates Budapest Airport. This is privately owned with German company HOCHTIEF AirPort, one of the world's biggest independent airport managers holding a 49.67% stake, together with a further four financial investors: Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Montreal holding a 18.17% stake; Malton Investment Pte Ltd. holding a 18.17% stake; Aero Investment S.á.r.l. holding a 10% stake and KfW IPEX-Bank, Frankfurt holding a 4% stake.

Budapest Airport aims to be best airport in the Central and Eastern European region and have been recognised for their development projects, customer services approach and marketing activities

www.bud.hu