Balaton Airport development in bound

In only a couple of months, the Ministry of National Development signs the agreement about the improvement of the airport in Sármellék, according to Turizmus.com. The airport requires a large scale extension to operate profitably in the long run, so both the technical capacity and the flight schedule are planned to be extended. 

Mayor Gábor Papp announced at a press conference that the 20 million euros fund would be spent on technological and infrastructural development at Hévíz-Balaton Airport. Among others, the currently 2.5-kilometer-long runway will be prolonged by additional 500 meters, the terminal building will be extended, and the surrounding territories — including the former Soviet barracks — will be renovated.

The airport in Hévíz is a quite successful and busy one: about 23,000 passengers used its services last year, especially the charter flights between Sármellék and Germany.

The airport handled several smaller planes as well with only a couple of passengers. Mr Papp mentioned that the airport would need 150,000-200,000 customers a year in order to function profitably, which requires the increasing of scheduled flights – the last improvement in this field was relaunching flights to the Czech Republic.