The airports of Hungary: records in 2016 and new flights this year

Turizmus.com writes that all three international airports of Hungary closed a great year in 2016 and started 2017 as a rather promising one. Budapest, Debrecen and Sármellék are to welcome new flights this year.

Let’s get back a little to the last December, when Budapest Airport welcomed its 11 millionth passenger with whom the number of passengers altogether in 2016 became 11.4 million. This meant an increase of 11% compared to the previous year.

Furthermore, new flights became available from Budapest, such as Toronto by Air Canada Rouge, Beijing by Air China, and Seoul by the summer charters of Asiana Airlines. And there are meetings going on in order to connect to further airports in New York, Tokyo and Seoul.

The leaders of the airport predict a bit moderate increase of 4-5% for this year, however, with an appropriate market a more significant rise might be possible. According to them, the success may be the result of the beneficial financial status of the airline companies and the fact that Budapest is an attractive destination.

In order to further develop the services, the construction of ibis Styles Budapest Airport began at the end of September and it will probably open at the end of 2017. Once it’s done it’ll welcome guests in 145 rooms, and in case of such demands, the capacity could be even expanded.

MTI

Moreover, the parking lot was also expanded by 1000 spots, which will be repeated in 2017 as well, thus, altogether more than 4500 lots will await passengers, while new supplier gates and standing lots will be available at the B side from the summer of 2018. Yet, Terminal 1 will remain a location for events and film shoots only.

Meanwhile, the train-connection to the capital seems to get closer to implementation: the preparations started and the appointing of the possible tracks are in an advanced state. 2016 brought a record in air cargo, too, as goods of 112 thousand tonnes became shipped this year. Also, further developments shall be expected in this area, for two new office and storage buildings are on the way to be opened in this year’s summer.

The BUD 2020 development project also includes the 16 thousand square metres Cargo City storage and office buildings designed next to Terminal 2. Th construction is expected to be finished by the end of 2018. Other successes of the airport include several awards, such as the excellent qualification by the British Investor in People, or the title of MagyarBrands.

The long-term plans mention the construction of a new terminal, which would become really necessary from 2020, and the concept of implementation would focus on and take into account the needs of the younger generations, thus, applying the modernist technologies, using automatized and smart solutions.

Then, the airport of Sármellék could also welcome an increase in traffic: 23.5 thousand passengers travelled to or from the Hévíz-Balaton Airport in 2016. This year they intend to launch scheduled flights from three West European cities. Luckily the traffic of the Moscow airport could compensate the airport after the Turkish charters stopped arriving in July last year.

The main traffic was provided by the charter flights from German cities and those were followed by the Russians. Moreover, the flights of UTair all went with full board, and this year, aside the weekly Moscow flights, London and Frankfurt will become available to travel to twice a week, and, according to the plans, there will be one weekly flight connecting Sármellék and Brussels, as well.

Repulnijo.hu

Based on the strategy worked out by the city and the survey conducted to check the travelling habits, target destinations, such as the ones with further transferring opportunities are needed. So, aside attracting tourists to Hévíz, travelling abroad will also become a possibility. Currently, as looking for new opportunities, negotiations about charters are carried out with Tel-Aviv and St. Petersburg.

Importantly, the Sármellék Airport is significant not only for Hévíz, but for the whole Balaton area, and, also, not only the tourists, but the professionals using the automotive test track in Zalaegerszeg can also greatly benefit from it.

Last but not least, the airport of Debrecen also managed to increase its passenger traffic from 172 thousand (2015) to 284 thousand (2016). This dynamic improvement was partly caused by the new base of Wizz Air and the Munich flight of Lufthansa.

This year they are set to continue to growth, especially because Wizz Air announced, in December, that they will launch flights to Tel-Aviv from Debrecen twice a week from the coming spring. Moreover, spring will bring back the Malmö flight of Wizz Air, too, being available twice a week.

Further flights include destinations such as London-Luton, eight times a week, Eindhoven, three times a week, Milan-Bergamo and Paris-Beauvais, twice a week. Whereas Lufthansa launched its Munich flight last April and rescheduled it in the autumn.

Therefore, the passengers of Lufthansa arriving in Munich can travel to Debrecen and the passengers of the 23 intercontinental flights landing at the Munich airport can access favourable transfers via Debrecen and get to several cities of Eastern Europe. Besides, those travelling to Munich from Debrecen can change to 16 transatlantic flights just that day.

Copy editor: bm

Source: turizmus.com