Hainan Airlines plans to launch the first direct international flight route between Shenzhen and the Hungarian capital of Budapest on Aug. 2. The new flight is expected to provide more options for people traveling between China and Europe and further strengthen the development of China-Hungary relations.
The new route will feature two round-trip flights a week. Outbound flights will depart on Mondays and Fridays at 2 a.m. from the Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport and arrive at the Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport at 7:50 a.m. local time. Return flights will depart at 11:40 a.m. from Budapest and arrive at the Shenzhen airport at 4:50 a.m. the following day. The actual flight details are subject to confirmation and may vary.
Hungary has created several "firsts" in developing friendly relations with China. It was the first European country to sign a Belt and Road Initiative cooperation memorandum with China, the first European country to open a Hungarian-Chinese bilingual teaching school, the first Central European country to establish a yuan settlement bank, the first Central European country where the China National Tourism Administration set up an office, and the first Central European country to issue yuan bonds.
Trade volume between Shenzhen and Hungary soared from 13.21 billion yuan (US$1.82 billion) in 2014 to 18.73 billion yuan in 2023, according to Shenzhen Customs. By the end of 2023, Shenzhen companies had cumulatively invested a substantial sum of US$470 million in Hungary.
Since the beginning of the year, the Shenzhen airport has newly opened and resumed international passenger flight routes to destinations such as Nha Trang, Sapporo, Cairo, Nagoya, Jeju, Mexico City, Vienna, and Riyadh, and the number of intercontinental passenger routes now exceeds 15. The airport's international and regional passenger routes currently cover more than 40 destinations across five continents, with more than 20 of them being in Belt and Road Initiative participant countries. The volume of weekly planned international and regional passenger flights has recovered to nearly 90% of the volume seen in 2019.