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Budapest Airport Kicks off 2024 with over One Million Passengers

Hungary Today 2024.02.15.

In January of this year, compared to the same period last year, Liszt Ferenc Airport registered 16.5 percent more passengers and the volume of air cargo also increased significantly, by almost 39 percent, Airportal.hu reports.

In the first month of 2024, Budapest Airport handled 1,100,451 passengers, an increase of 9.3 percent compared to the record year of 2019, before the COVID pandemic.

Air cargo turnover last month was 18,074 tons, 5,049 tons (38.8 percent) more than in January 2023.

According to the portal, the cargo business has never seen such a strong turnover in the first month of the year. The figures published include the volume of goods that pass through airports but are transported by road.

In January of this year, a total of 8,563 landings and take-offs were recorded, 18.3 percent more than in the first month of 2023, and 0.6 percent more than in January 2019.

In 2023, a total of 14,701,000 passengers and 201,306 tons of air cargo were handled at Liszt Ferenc Airport, breaking all previous records.

Based on the already encouraging figures, the airport operator expects that in 2024, the number of passengers will exceed the 16.2 million recorded before the COVID pandemic.

“In 2023, Liszt Ferenc International Airport had an outstanding year, with passenger numbers exceeding 14.7 million, reaching 91 percent of the pre-pandemic level, and air cargo volumes exceeding 200,000 tons, an increase of around 50 percent compared to 2019. This year, the operator expects nearly 17 million passengers and next year 18.5 million, ” emphasized Kam Jandu, CEO of Budapest Airport.

Fact

Since the beginning of September 2023, it has been known that the Hungarian government made a takeover bid for a majority stake in Budapest Airport, allegedly for 51 percent. The specific buyer could be a state-controlled investment company. The minority stake would go to a professional investor, reportedly France’s VINCI Airports, a major airport operator in Europe and in the region. Furthermore, Qatari state investors (Qatar Investment Authority) could join as either financial or strategic investors.

As Hungary Today previously reported, the agreement on the buy-back of the Airport could be reached as early as February. Márton Nagy, the national economy minister, also told Bloomberg at the end of 2023, that if the deal goes through, the expansion of the airport will be on the agenda and there are plans to build a third terminal. The airport was valued at EUR 4.4 billion in the failed state takeover attempt in 2021, but it is not known for how much it will be bought now.

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Via Airportal; Featured image via Facebook/Budapest Airport


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