New airport in Budapest? A necessity according to Smartwings
The contamination of Budapest airspace would decrease drastically if a new airport were to be built on the border of the city – said Attila Farkas, executive director of Smartwings Hungary Ltd. in a Trend Fm broadcast the other day.
It is relatively current news that free airspace usage was extended to the Romanian and Bulgarian airspace with the contribution of HungaroControl, which had been introduced in Hungary in 2015. Therefore airplanes are able to travel the shortest distance all day thus decreasing the course of overflying planes by 20 thousand kilometres on average and the duration by 23 hours which leads to saving 70 tons of fuel and 220 tons less carbon-dioxide emission, reports Turizmus.com.
Budapest under serious strain
According to the executive director of Smartwings Attila Farkas from the perspective of environmental impact, free airspace usage is a significant trend but not sufficient enough.
Although aircraft manufacturers make more and more environmentally friendly machines that are lighter, equipped with more modern engines and have a smaller environmental impact because of the economic boom a more significant number of planes travel in Hungary’s airspace.
The director of Smartwings is chiefly concerned with the strain on Budapest, as a characteristic of Liszt Ferenc International Airport is that the runway is opposing the city exactly; therefore, planes have to fly over Budapest in order to land, they cannot avoid the city from any side.
This means that in the final minutes before landing, when they are flying low, aeroplanes dump their harmful substances on the inhabitants of Budapest. According to Attila Farkas, there is only one solution for this: we need to build a second airport so that environmental impacts, including noise pollution, will be moved to the outskirts of Budapest. This airport would be in charge of, for example, cargo traffic, low-cost flights and charters.
When Budapest airport was designed in the 40s, no one thought that one day its traffic would be as much as it is currently.
It is also worth to consider that metropolises of Europe usually have several airports which support the growing need of inhabitants for a greener environment with cleaner air, he added.
A few weeks ago Attila Farkas sent a letter to the Secretary of the Development of Capital Agglomeration Balázs Fürjes in which he outlined his suggestion of the new airport. As he said, they are past first meetings, and they are working on convincing decision-makers about the ecological and economic benefits of the project.
Attila Farkas stated that he has no interest in the subject other than as an airline operator. According to him, it would be suitable for service standard if the monopoly of Budapest Airport ceased to exist but either way, he is convinced that because of the enormous strain on Budapest another airport will be needed sooner or later.
Source: turizmus.com
Why cant they use Fly Balaton airport as it just stands empty except for a couple of flights a week. Many people come down to the Lake for their holiday and with that airport being open again it wld save them many hours of travelling and the cost it involves too. It wld also mean older family members could come and visit their friends and family that live here and easier for people living round here to go back to the UK more often, I havent been back to see my Mother since Ryanair stopped flying as I suffer from breathing problems and Budapest airport is too big for me to walk round. Se is 93 now and I fear I may never see her again.