Liszt Ferenc International operator Budapest Airport expects passenger numbers to fall to 5.5 million this year, down from an earlier estimate of 10 million, due to expected flight cancellations and reduced demand resulting from the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Budapest Airport said in a statement that after serving a record 16.2 million passengers in 2019, it had originally expected more than 17 million people to pass through the airport this year.
However, by the end of August Liszt Ferenc International had only handled 3.5 million passengers compared with 10.6 million by the end of the same month last year. After April’s low point in passenger airline traffic, the number of passengers using the airport started rising again, reaching 393,665 in August, the statement said, noting however that this figure was down significantly from last August’s 1.6 million passengers.
Budapest Airport said it expects the latest round of entry restrictions introduced by the government to have a similar effect on passenger numbers as the restrictions that were in place from March to June had. Low-cost airlines Wizz Air and Ryanair have already cancelled flights for the period ahead with the rest of the carriers expected to decide on their schedules and cancellations in the coming days, the operator said. Budapest Airport noted that it expects daily passenger numbers to come to 3,000 at most in the coming period.
hungarymatters.hu
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