Ryanair Group is axing eight routes from Budapest and reducing frequencies on seven more in response to a new Hungarian tax on company profits. Hungary is imposing a windfall tax on the earnings of companies enjoying a bounceback in demand following the Covid-19 pandemic. Ryanair says the measure, which it labels "stupid and bizarre", amounts to an extra charge of €10-25 ($10-25) per departing passenger from 1 July. Having passed on the additional cost to customers, Ryanair has been fined Ft300 million ($769,000), according to Facebook post from Hungarian justice minister Varga Judit. "The war inflation and the war economic situation require that whichever multinational companies that make extra profit should pay their share of the costs of the overhead protection and the national defence," she wrote on 8 August. Ryanair has responded by ending its connections to Bordeaux, Bournemouth, Cologne, Kaunas, Krakow, Lappeenranta, Riga and Tallin for the winter season, and reducing frequencies to Amman, Bristol, Pisa, Prague, Sofia, Tel Aviv and Warsaw. "We regret these route and flight cuts which are caused solely by the stupid and illogical decision of the Hungarian government to impose an 'excess profits' [tax] on the loss-making airline industry which now makes flying to/from Hungary more expensive and less competitive," states Ryanair group chief executive Michael O'Leary. "Applying an 'excess profits' tax to the loss-making airline sector in Hungary is inexplicable, and only succeeds in raising flight costs to/from Hungary when other Central European airports have lower costs and no idiotic 'excess profits' tax either. These routes and flights will be switched to other lower-cost neighbouring countries like Slovakia, Austria, Croatia and Romania, none of which have any idiotic 'excess profits' tax on loss-making airlines." The Hungarian government said in May that it would seek to force large companies including airlines to pay "a large part of their extra profits" into funds designed to ease cost-of-living pressures and bolster the national military. A statement from prime minister Viktor Orban suggested that many companies are making "extraordinarily high profits" amid rising prices, and listed airlines among those that would be obliged to provide additional funds for 2022 and 2023.

Wizz Air has appointed Diarmuid O Conghaile, formerly chief executive of Ryanair's Malta Air subsidiary, to lead its new Maltese unit. O Conghaile, who most recently served as aviation regulator for the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), will start his new role as managing director of Wizz Air Malta on 1 November, reporting to group chief operating officer Michael Delehant. Prior to joining the IAA, O Conghaile worked at Ryanair, initially as director of public affairs and then heading up its Malta Air unit. Before that, he had served as general manager of strategy, planning and economic regulation at Irish airports authority DAA. "We are delighted to welcome Diarmuid in this newly created officer role at Wizz Air," states group chief executive Jozsef Varadi. "His role as managing director of Wizz Air Malta will be instrumental for delivering our next phase of growth in the coming years." Wizz announced in May that it planned to establish a new Maltese airline subsidiary, set to become operational in October.

China and the UK have agreed to resume passenger flights, ending a more than two-year ban amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The UK Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Administration of China agreed to resume two-way direct passenger scheduled services, according to a notice posted by the British embassy in China on its official Twitter account on 10 August. "This will end the ban on direct passenger services imposed by the Chinese authorities during the Covid-19 pandemic," the notice states. Initial services are being offered by Chinese airlines, and work is ongoing for British airlines to resume routes. Air China will resume one weekly flight between Shanghai Pudong and London Heathrow from 13 August, according to a WeChat post on 8 August. China Eastern says it will resume flights between Shanghai Pudong and London Heathrow on 12 and 19 August, although the return London-Shanghai flights will not carry passengers, according to its 9 August notice. Data shows that in 2019, only Chinese and British carriers were operating services between the two countries. During the year, Air China, British Airways, China Eastern, China Southern, China Eastern, Hainan Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Tianjin Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, and Beijing Capital Airways collectively operated over 170 weekly roundtrip flights. Air China operated the highest number of flights, averaging about 45 weekly roundtrip flights on Beijing-London Heathrow and Chengdu-Gatwick routes, followed by British Airways with about 34 weekly roundtrip flights connecting London Heathrow with Shanghai and Beijing.