Government killed pilot training in Hungary with staggering charge fee surge?

The Hungarian government says nobody should be worried because of the steep rise, but key players in the industry believe the decision will kill pilot training in Hungary. As a result, foreigners will not come to Hungary to become a pilot, while companies will leave the country to continue pilot training abroad.

According to 24.hu, the parliament modified relevant laws this June following the proposal of János Lázár’s Ministry of Construction and Transport. The steep rise concerns two charges. One is the so-called ATO (approved training organisation), which means a yearly fee for an authority checkup. The cost was HUF 120,000 (EUR 317) until the law modification. After that, it jumped to HUF 2 million (EUR 5,285). The increase is 17-fold. Without an ATO paper, nobody can train a pilot in Hungary.

The other increased fee is the yearly supervision fee for the flight doctors. The original sum was HUF 60,000 (EUR 158). Now it is HUF 2 million (EUR 5,285). The increase rate is a whopping 36-fold. Every pilot is required to have a certification of medical fitness. That can be only issued by flight doctors. Its price is now HUF 20-30,000 (EUR 52-79), but it will probably increase drastically.

Pilot training organisations believe the parliament’s (government’s) decision is unprecedented. Furthermore, it is retroactive since it is valid from 1 January even though it was accepted in June. Therefore, even ATO holders must pay the difference between the increased fee and the original one until 30 September.

Pilot training will leave Hungary?

Pilot training fees are much lower in Europe. For instance, ATO documents in Slovakia are between EUR 160 and 500. In Austria, it costs EUR 350.

As a result, pilot training prices will skyrocket in Hungary, followed by a drastic drop in the applicant numbers. Furthermore, before COVID, Hungarian companies trained many foreign pilots. The pandemic broke that trend, and the parliament’s decision will give the final blow. However, even Hungarian applicants will be fewer since becoming a pilot is already very expensive (millions of forints), and prices will only move up due to the fee rises.

The only option to obtain your pilot license cheaper will be state-funded programmes. One example is in Debrecen, where a company trains pilots in the framework of the Stipendium Hungaricum programme.

As a consequence of all that, Hungarian pilot training companies plan to move abroad. Currently, there are 26 of them in Hungary, but four have a suspended ATO.

24.hu asked the ministry why they increased the charges that much but received no explanation.

Meanwhile, another Central Asian capital will have regular flights to Budapest, read more HERE. And HERE is an article about a survey stating that Budapest is one of the world’s cheapest Airbnb holiday destinations.