Arsenal supporters are fanning out across Europe to reach Budapest for Saturday’s UEFA Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain, after direct flights sold out and the remaining fares climbed sharply. Some are taking trains, buses and connecting flights instead, turning the trip to Puskas Stadium into a long, costly scramble.
By Friday, all 13 of Wizz Air’s Budapest-bound flights from London had sold out, and the last available one-way fare shown on Skyscanner was £407. That is forcing fans who want to be in the city for the final to piece together indirect routes through other airports and capitals, often at much higher cost and with overnight travel baked in.
Darren Cornish booked a return flight to Linz, Austria, for £150 after Arsenal’s semi-final, then planned to take a three and a half hour train to Budapest on Saturday morning. “We’ll get there by train, plane and automobiles,” he said, adding that most of the friends he knows are heading in by way of Vienna, Bratislava and Rome rather than flying straight into Hungary.
Cornish said he “jumped” on the Linz option because he had no interest in paying the prices he was seeing for the Hungarian capital. He also said he had “never seen scenes like that at the Emirates” and has followed Arsenal through title celebrations at Anfield, Old Trafford, White Hart Lane and Highbury, a reminder of how rare this final is for supporters who have spent years waiting for this stage again.
Ben Boxhall took a similar route. He and two friends flew to Kraków and planned to catch a bus to Budapest at 5am on Saturday, after paying £170 for return flights when direct Budapest seats were still being offered for about £500 to £600 on Wizz Air. “We were 18 months old when they won the league in 2004. This is the first one that we remember and celebrating with our parents and friends,” Boxhall said.
The scramble is not limited to one group of supporters. Ollie Laurence said he knew people paying “north of a grand” for flights just to get there, underlining how sharply travel costs have risen around a final Arsenal have not reached in 20 years. The club’s Premier League title celebrations, paired with the rare chance to see it contest Europe’s biggest stage, have left fans willing to travel any way they can.
That may still not tell the full story by kickoff. Supporters are continuing to arrive in Budapest by whatever route they can make work, but with direct seats gone and prices stretched beyond what many can afford, the final turnout from Arsenal’s away following will be shaped as much by logistics and budget as by loyalty.
