In response to this surge of bookings, Ryanair announced further expansion of its Budapest base with a 5th based aircraft (from 26 March next), 1 new route Budapest to Tampere (now 32 routes in total) and 21 more weekly flights, with additional frequencies on Ryanair’s routes from Budapest to Brussels, Eindhoven, Gothenburg, Madrid, Milan, Rome, Stockholm and Thessaloniki.

Ryanair also confirmed that this 5th aircraft (new Tampere route and 21 additional frequencies) will see Ryanair’s Budapest traffic grow to 2.4m passengers in its first year, sustaining up to 2,400 jobs in Hungarian tourism.

In Budapest, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“Ryanair will be investing more than $350m in its new 5 aircraft Budapest base, and thanks to the exceptional support of Budapest Airport and the Hungarian Government, Ryanair’s base will open on time on Friday 17th February next.

"Ryanair’s new Budapest base will make up much of the traffic lost following Malev’s closure, but at fares which are less than one quarter of Malev’s fares and less than half the fares of the other high fare airline Wizzair.

"While loss making Wizzair continues to charge its passengers fares of €29, €39 and €49, Ryanair’s flights will start at €9.99. Ryanair also committed that its lowest fares will be at least 50% lower than Wizzair and with at least double the availability of Wizzair’s promotional prices," according to a Ryanair press statement.

Source: Ryanair.com

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