Ryanair is further expanding its Budapest base. The Irish airline announced its eleventh Budapest-based aircraft at a press conference on Tuesday, announced Chief Commercial Officer Jason McGuinness.
McGuinness said that Ryanair has 96 bases in 36 countries across Europe. Last year, they carried a total of 208 million passengers.
He emphasized that their presence in Hungary is important to them, and with the new aircraft, they will offer a record 6.5 million seats per year (in 2025, this number was 6.2 million). This year, they will operate 67 routes from Hungary, with five new destination such as:
Dubrovnik, Krakow, Lamezia, Marrakesh, and Newcastle.
The expansion of the Budapest base was realized as part of a $1.1 billion investment. The chief commercial officer said that the record investment was due to the Hungarian government’s decision to abolish air transport taxes. Since the abolition of the tax, Ryanair’s traffic in Budapest has increased by 15%.
He added that the benefits of the abolition of air transport taxes could now be jeopardized by Budapest Airport’s successive and unjustified fee increases, which they say have reached 10% since 2024.
Jason McGuinnes added that Ryanair is calling on the Hungarian government to immediately reduce Budapest Airport’s excessive fees in order to remain competitive with Polish, Slovak, and Croatian airports, which continue to reduce their fees.
Photo: Facebook/Budapest Airport
As McGuinnes confirmed, if competitive cost levels are restored, Ryanair could rapidly accelerate its investments in Hungary, increasing its annual traffic by nearly 50% to more than 10 million seats, and station an additional five aircraft (for a total of 16) in Hungary by 2032, creating 150 new, highly paid aviation jobs in Budapest, Balaton, and Debrecen, bringing the number of its professionals in Hungary to 480. This would represent a total investment of $1.6 billion by the airline.
Budapest Airport is also undergoing a major renovation, which will also help airlines in the long term. In this regard, József Váradi, CEO of Wizz Air, said at a press breakfast earlier this year that this was needed, and that Terminal 3 should already be operational now to meet market demand.
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Via Világgazdaság; Featured image: Pexels
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