Route brief · SHA → BUD
Shanghai → Budapest
$740
−6% vs typical
seasonal median $785 · difference $45
Feb 5 '27 – Feb 11 '27 · 6 nights
Shanghai AirlinesNonstop
- Usual monthly lows
- $758–$799
- Board rank
- Stronger than 8%
- Route sample
- 5 observed months
Cached fare — the booking search re-prices live before you pay.
Destination briefBUDBudapestThermal baths, ruin bars and a river splitting two cities — still the best value capital in Europe.Best windowApr–Jun · Sep–OctAirportsFerenc Liszt (BUD)All routes into BudapestWhen this route gets cheap.
Cached-fare history: across 5 months, Feb is the cheapest for SHA → BUD. Best time to be there: Apr–Jun · Sep–Oct.
Fares bottom out in February around $740 and peak in October near $918 — a $178 spread across the 5 months we track. The cheapest itinerary we are tracking flies Shanghai Airlines nonstop and takes about 12.5 hours outbound, on a 6-night trip. At $740 for 8,346 km each way, that works out to about $44 per 1,000 km flown. That is about the $44 typical of long-haul fares here. Across the 19 departure cities we track at a similar distance from Budapest, this fare ranks 9th — 37% above the $541 from Seoul. That puts it in the cheaper half of the 38 routes of similar length we watch out of Shanghai, where the middle fare is $759.
The 7 days we hold a cached fare for
Tap a date → live search
The median cached fare across this calendar is 27% higher than when tracking began on Aug 8 — $723 then versus $918 now, across 5 recorded snapshots. This is a calendar-level trend, so an individual deal above can be lower. The lowest single day we have seen here is $571, on Oct 13.
- Wed, Sep 9$683
- Thu, Sep 10$784
- Sun, Sep 13$1,170
- Mon, Sep 28$927
- Tue, Sep 29$813
- Wed, Sep 30$970
- Sat, Oct 10$918
These are the only days we have a cached price for on this route so far — not the only days it flies. The search above covers any date.
Cheapest in Feb · around $740
6% below the $785 typical fare
Cheapest round-trip fare found per month · Shanghai → Budapest · cached-price history
Route facts
- Airports
- Pudong (PVG) · Hongqiao (SHA) ↔ Ferenc Liszt (BUD)
- Flight time
- ~12.5 hours outbound
- Distance
- ~8,346 km each way
- Typical price
- $785 round-trip (seasonal median)
- Airlines on the board
- Shanghai Airlines
- Itineraries
- Nonstop available
- Best months to visit
- Apr–Jun · Sep–Oct
SHA → BUD, answered.
Is $740 a good price for Shanghai to Budapest?
Only slightly. The seasonal median is around $785 round-trip and this fare is 6% under it, about $45. We do not call a drop notable until 20%, so this is an ordinary price for the route rather than a reason to hurry.
What is the cheapest month to fly from Shanghai to Budapest?
Across 5 months of cached-fare history, Feb comes out cheapest on this route. The best months to actually be in Budapest are Apr–Jun · Sep–Oct — when those overlap, that's your window.
How far in advance should I book SHA → Budapest?
We do not publish a number for this, because we cannot measure it yet. Answering it honestly means watching the same departure date on this route over many weeks as it approaches, and that archive is still filling up — so any "book N days ahead" figure here would be borrowed from somewhere else rather than measured. What we can measure is which month is cheap: across 5 months of cached fares, Feb comes out lowest on this route. See /guides/what-moves-a-flight-price/ for what does move a fare.
Are there nonstop flights from Shanghai to Budapest?
Yes — the current board includes nonstop fares (Shanghai Airlines). The outbound leg runs around 12.5 hours.
Are these prices guaranteed?
No — these are cached fares found on real searches (this one on September 1). Airlines reprice constantly, so the booking search re-checks the live price before you pay. Fresher finds are far more likely to still be available.
Next step
Sleeping in Budapest?
Lock the flight first — then compare stays for Feb 5 '27 – Feb 11 '27 · 6 nights.
Browse hotels ↗
Missed it?
Cached fares expire. This route has a feed of its own — follow it and the next SHA → BUD drop reaches you as soon as we find it.
Follow SHA → BUD