Hungarian international airport dismantles runways, new flights to North Africa possible

The owners of the second biggest Hungarian international airport hope that, thanks to the dismantling of some taxiways near the runways, the air gate will become safer. Meanwhile, direct flights may connect Hungary with a North African tourist paradise.

According to Budflyer, Zsolt Németh, the head of the Hungarian parliament’s foreign relations committee, was in Morocco negotiating a direct air connection between the African tourist paradise and Budapest. The last time such an option served Hungarian passengers was before 2018: Ryanair flew to Marrakesh, while Wizz Air flew to Agadir. Morocco is a white patch currently on Budapest Airport’s map, having great possibilities concerning tourism potential.

The summer season has started at the international airport of Debrecen, dehir.hu, one of the city’s news outlets, wrote. The air gate offers flights to the most popular destinations for Hungarian holidaymakers: Türkiye, Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Tel-Aviv (Israel). Furthermore, they began to dismantle some runways currently not in use to make the airport safer.

CEO believes the airport will become safer

The southern taxiway of the international airport of Debrecen has not been used since the end of international air traffic in 2001. A taxiway is a path for aircraft at an airport connecting runways with aprons, hangars, terminals and other facilities. In May, they started to dismantle the taxiway since its cover deteriorated significantly. According to the plans, the airport operator will eliminate 200,000 sqm of the old concrete road for HUF 50 million (EUR 135,700). All costs will be covered by the airport.

The CEO of the Debrecen international airport, Tamás Király, said there are too many paved roadways in a deteriorated state at the airport close to the runways. Removing these would create a safer environment, he believes.

The charter season began this weekend at the airport. From 10 June, planes commute between Debrecen and Antalya twice a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays. But there will be other flights to Crete and other Greek destinations, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Israel. In 2023, they had 85 thousand passengers, a 20 percent rise compared to 2022. They expect 350 thousand passengers in 2023. Here is a photo taken before the take-off of the first flight yesterday: