The first airline to restore flights between the UK and Europe, Hungary’s Wizz Air have announced a range of services between Budapest and London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid and other European cities. The airline’s bases in London and Vienna will also be back in operation from 1 May.
Social distancing and other hygiene and security measures have been stepped up. Cabin crew will wear masks and gloves, and planes will be disinfected overnight. Wizz Air have released a video showing health and safety guidelines to be followed by passengers wishing to travel, available now on their Facebook page.
Dutch national carrier KLM are also restoring services between Budapest and Amsterdam from Monday, 4 May, with one flight a day from the Netherlands at 9.15am, leaving Hungary at noon.
Budapest Airport saw a severe drop in passenger numbers during April. While more than 40,000 travellers passed through the airport every day this month in 2019, that figure barely reached 300 this year.
In the meantime, the airport has undergone a complete hygiene spring clean, disinfecting all areas including the ventilation system, making hand sanitisers widely available and ensuring staff working at relatively close quarters with the public wear masks.
According to Budapest Airport CEO Dr Rolf Schnitzler, “In harmony with the government’s measures, the airport operator has been doing everything it could since the appearance of the pandemic in January to ensure that presence at the airport should be safe and risk-free for passengers and employees alike”.
