Hochtief’s failure to agree a long term growth deal with Europe’s largest airline is further proof that Budapest Airport has no interest growing Hungarian tourism, traffic and jobs as it repeatedly increases charges even as its traffic declines. This was confirmed by Patrick Bohl (Budapest Airport) who recently admitted that ‘budget airline’ passengers pay more than Malev transfer passengers, with Budapest enjoying “probably the best recovery any airport has seen when they lost a national carrier.”

These Budapest cuts (effective 10 Jan 2013) will include:

• 5 to 3 based aircraft
• 30 routes to 20 (down 33%).
• From over 280 weekly flights to less than 170 (down 40%).
• 2m to 1.2m pax p.a (down 40%).
• Frequency cuts on 9 of 20 other routes
• The loss of 800,000 pax p.a. and 800 “on-site” jobs at Budapest Airport.

Ryanair regrets these cuts and confirms that they can be reversed if a competitive cost offer and efficient facilities become available at Budapest Airport.

In Budapest today Michael O’Leary said:

“Ryanair regrets Hochtief Budapest Airport’s decision to increase charges, impose inefficient facilities and reject our proposals for a competitive growth offer which would have allowed Ryanair to grow traffic and routes at Budapest.

Ryanair will now switch 2 aircraft from Budapest with the loss of 10 routes, reductions on 9 others and the loss of 110 weekly flights. Sadly, 800,000 passengers p.a. and over 800 jobs will be lost by Budapest to other airports elsewhere in Europe, where Ryanair will continue to grow.

With 1.2m passengers and 20 routes, Ryanair will remain one of the 2 largest airlines operating at Budapest, but Hochtief cannot continue to ignore the competitive marketplace, where airports all over Europe have been reducing costs and offering efficient facilities in return for traffic growth. We hope there is a way to reverse these cuts to ensure further Ryanair growth at Budapest.”

Ryanair’s Budapest route cancellations

1 Baden
6 Lubeck
2 Birmingham
7 Malaga
3 Bologna
8 Munich
4 Dusseldorf
9 Oslo
5 Krakow 1
0 Thessaloniki

* Per ACI statistics

Source: Ryanair.com