Budapest airport opened 65 years ago

According to inforadio.hu, 65 years ago, Budapest airport opened in May 7 1950, with this civil flight started in the aerodrome still operating – Budapest Airport told MTI.

The area of Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport, formerly known as Ferihegy airport was selected by the capital for the purpose of civil-military use even in 1938. However, since the airport suffered several bomb attacks in 1944, it was only rebuilt by 1950 and it could receive the first airplane, a Lisunov Li-2 on May 7.

The passenger traffic surpassed the annual one million by the 1970’s, so in 1977, the construction of a new control tower and the parallel runway 2 began. In 1985, 2A terminal was completed, so did the 2B terminal in 1998. SkyCourt, which connects the two building, was built from EUR 100 in 2011.

After the privatization, Budapest Airport Zrt. operated under British control from January 2006. From June 2007, the international consortium led by the German Hochtief Airport took over not quite 75% of the shares, 25% plus one vote remained in Hungarian ownership until summer 2011, inforadio.hu said.

The Budapest airport suffered the biggest crisis of its history on February 3 2012, by the shutdown and bankruptcy of Hungarian airlines. In that year, the passenger traffic declined by several hundred thousand, the transfer traffic virtually eliminated and the number of aircraft takeoffs and landings dropped to the 2002 level. Budapest Airport suffered serious financial losses and decided on the end of several projects – including Cargo City – it announced layoffs and closed the Terminal 1 in order to make the operation more efficient.

Budapest Airport took immediate and significant steps towards the restoration of the discontinued flights and passenger traffic. Due to this, the airport had higher turnover than ever in 2014.

based on the article of inforadio.hu
translated by BA

Photo: http://budapest.varosom.hu

Source: http://inforadio.hu