The airline Ryanair is currently examining the flight offer from Croatia, Austria, Romania and Slovakia at the expense of expanding that from Hungary. The background is the special tax that the Orban government has been levying on flight tickets since July 1, 2022.

The carrier has already put the sale on a total of eight routes, which were previously offered by the subsidiary Buzz from Budapest, were discontinued. CEO Michael O'Leary told the media, among other things: "We regret these route and flight cuts, which are solely due to the stupid and illogical decision of the Hungarian government to tax the loss-making airline industry with a tax on excess profits, the flights to/from Hungary more expensive and less competitive. It is inexplicable that the loss-making Hungarian aviation industry is burdened with an excess profit tax, while other Central European airports have lower costs and also do not levy an idiotic excess profit tax”.

Since Ryanair had subsequently asked passengers with tickets from Budapest who had booked before the new special tax came into force to pay, the Hungarian Consumer Protection Office imposed a penalty a hefty fine against the carrier. The low-cost airline wants to take legal action against this. Competitor Wizz Air is also reducing its presence in Budapest in the 2022/23 winter flight schedule. For example, the frequencies are reduced on many routes and the connection to Cologne/Bonn is suspended, among other things. Unlike Ryanair, the pink competitor is not aggressively opposed to the new tax.

The low-cost airline Ryanair wants to relocate parts of the capacity that has so far been offered from Hungary to neighboring countries. The group management explicitly named Croatia, Romania, Slovakia and Austria. The reason given for the decision is that these states would not impose "an idiotic excess profit tax on loss-making airlines". The announced changes are not yet visible in the carrier's reservation system, but it can be assumed that new routes and/or additional frequencies could be loaded from the states mentioned in a few days.