With four non-stop destinations in China and flights to Seoul, South Korea, Budapest Airport is fairly well-connected with East Asia. The connectivity will improve further with an upcoming increase in frequencies to Beijing and Shanghai.
Continue reading to learn more.
Air China to Add an Extra Beijing – Budapest Rotation in April 2024
Until February 19, 2024, Star Alliance member Air China is scheduled to operate one weekly rotation, every Monday, between Beijing Capital Airport and Budapest. From February 23, 2024, a Friday frequency will be added for a total of two weekly rotations, the same as the airline planned when it first resumed the route post-COVID in the summer of 2022.
In the coming summer, Air China now plans to increase capacity on the route even further by adding an extra rotation on Thursdays for a total of three a week.
Separately from connecting the two capitals, Air China also serves Budapest non-stop from Chongqing once a week, every Wednesday (albeit some weeks the flight does not operate).
Both of Air China’s routes to Budapest are operated using the airline’s 787-9s. These are equipped with 30 lie-flat business class seats in a 2-2-2 layout, 34 premium economy class seats (in the same nine-abreast layout as in economy class), and 229 economy class seats in a 3-3-3 layout for a total of 293 seats.
With that, once the extra Beijing – Budapest rotation is added, Air China will offer a total of 1,172 weekly seats between China and Hungary in each direction, spread across four roundtrips.
Shanghai Airlines to Serve Budapest Daily in the Summer
In addition to Air China, SkyTeam member China Eastern’s subsidiary Shanghai Airlines offers non-stop flights between China and Budapest too. Like Air China, Shanghai Airlines serves Budapest from two gateways: Shanghai and Ningbo.
The flights between Shanghai Pudong Airport and Budapest currently operate three times a week, every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.
That said, during the 2024 summer schedule, i.e. between March 31, 2024, and October 25, 2024, Shanghai Airlines plans to increase the route’s frequency to daily, making Shanghai the best-connected Chinese city with Budapest.
Once the winter schedule sets in at the end of October, the flights will return to three weekly rotations.
Shanghai Airlines also offers two weekly flights (each Monday and Thursday) between Ningbo, a city just a couple of hundred kilometers away from Shanghai, and Budapest. The airline plans to continue operating the route with the same frequency throughout the year.
Both of Shanghai Airline’s Budapest routes are served using 787-9s. Being equipped with 30 staggered business class seats in a 1-2-1 layout, 28 proper premium economy class seats in a 2-3-2 layout, and 227 economy class seats in a 3-3-3 layout, the aircraft can, at 285 total seats, carry slightly fewer passengers than Air China’s 787-9s.
During the 2024 summer schedule, Shanghai Airlines will offer a total of 9 weekly rotations between China and Hungary for a total of 2,565 weekly seats in each direction.
China Southern Reported to Be Considering Adding Budapest
With Chinese tourists able to hit the road again now that the country’s COVID-related travel restrictions have been lifted, “the number of tourists from South Korea and China quadrupled in 2023 compared to 2022,” according to Hungary Today.
“From China, millions can be attracted by a TV show. A good example is the Chinese reality show Chinese Restaurant, filmed in Budapest last year between June and July. The first episode was watched by more than 160 million people in the first week of its launch,” the report added.
As such, it should come as no surprise that both Air China and Shanghai Airlines are planning frequency increases during the busy summer season.
Additionally, there are also reports of China Southern Airlines planning to serve Budapest. BUD Flyer reported that the airline filed an application with the Chinese authorities to get permission to operate Urumqi – Budapest four times a week starting from March 2024.
Whether that route will come to fruition or not remains to be seen.
Summary
Hungary is perhaps the country most friendly with China within the European Union. That definitely contributes to the fact that Budapest is served non-stop from four Chinese cities including Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, and Ningbo. While the former two routes are operated by Air China, the latter two are operated by Shanghai Airlines.
While currently, there are eight weekly rotations between the two countries. During the 2024 summer schedule, when Air China will add an extra weekly frequency from Beijing and Shanghai Airlines four extra from Shanghai, there will be a total of 11 weekly frequencies and 3,737 weekly seats available between the two countries.
That is, unless China Southern Airlines launches flights to Budapest too. In that case, the capacity will be even higher.
