Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport
Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport , formerly known as Budapest Ferihegy International Airport and commonly denoted as Ferihegy, is the international airport serving the Hungarian capital city of Budapest. It is the largest of the country's four commercial airports, ahead of Debrecen and Hévíz–Balaton. The airport is located southeast of the center of Budapest and was renamed in 2011 after Hungarian composer Franz Liszt on the occasion of his 200th birthday. The facility covers and has two runways.
It offers international connections primarily within Europe, but also to Africa, to the Middle East, and to the Far East. In 2024, the airport handled 17.6 million passengers. The airport is the headquarters and primary hub for Wizz Air and base for Ryanair. In 2012 it experienced a significant drop in aircraft movements and handled cargo, primarily due to the collapse of Malév Hungarian Airlines earlier in the year, hence lost a large portion of connecting passengers. It had been the hub for Malév until the airline's bankruptcy on 3 February 2012.
Name
Originally called Budapest Ferihegy International Airport, on 25 March 2011 it was officially renamed Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport in honour of the Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt. Popularly, the airport is still called Ferihegy as before.Ferihegy is the name of the neighbourhood around the airport. The name is derived from that of Ferenc Xavér Mayerffy, the former owner of an estate who established vineyards and contributed to the development of viticulture in Pest-Buda. "Feri" is a diminutive form of Ferenc while "hegy" means mountain. In fact, the area is almost totally flat; but originally there was a 147 m high sandy hillock which was levelled in the 1940s during the construction of the airport.
History
Designing and construction (1939–1944)
Since 1937, Budapest's primary airport had been Budaörs Airport. However, within two years of its opening, it was already apparent that Budaörs was obsolete. It could not be expanded due to surrounding hills, and its runways were also inadequate.In 1938, the idea of building a new airport in Budapest was born. The area at the boundary of three settlements was assigned as the area of the new airport. The airport was intended as jointly for civil-military-sporting purposes. Civil facilities were to be built up in the northwestern section and military ones in the southwestern section. Just as for each building, a public tender was invited for the designing and construction of the traffic building.
In December 1939, upon an announcement of the results of the tender invited in September that year, the designs of Károly Dávid Jr. were chosen. The designer, who was one of the originators of modern Hungarian architectural art, dreamt of a building which resembled an aircraft from the top-side view. The work commenced in 1942. To approach the airport from the city, a high-speed road was constructed between 1940 and 1943, which, after improvements, remains in use today.
The military buildings were constructed parallel to the civil construction from 1940 but, due to the war situation, faster. Aviation started at the airport in 1943. In wartime, the civil construction slowed down and then stopped at the beginning of 1944. Towards the end of World War II, many of the airport buildings were damaged. By the end of 1944, Budapest and its airport were under Soviet occupation.
Reconstruction (1947–1950)
In 1947, it was decided that the airport would be reconstructed for civil aviation. Under the three-year plan, 40 million forints were voted for those works. The opening ceremony was held in May 1950 and the sections finished allowed Magyar-Szovjet Polgári Légiforgalmi Rt., established in 1946, to operate here. At that time the airlines operated only a few foreign flights, in particular, those to Prague, Bucharest, Warsaw, and Sofia.Magyar Légiforgalmi Vállalat was established on 25 November 1954. The first regular flight taking off from the airport to the West was the Malév's flight into Vienna in summer 1956. The first Western airline which launched a flight to Budapest was KLM in 1957. The traffic building was finished in this period and the lengthening works of the runway were started. At the end of 1958 the runway was lengthened to and taxiway D was finished.
Continued growth (1960–1980)
Between its opening and 1960, the number of landings at the Airport increased from 4,786 to 17,133, with passenger traffic increasing from 49,955 to 359,338 by 1960.In 1965, a study was made on the development of the airport, which was implemented with more than a 10-year delay from the end of the 1970s. Aviation, airport, and flight control all called for more capacity and infrastructure. The Aviation and Airport Directorate was established on 1 January 1973 and performed as an airline company, a trading company, and an authority, as well as investment, operator, and air navigation tasks.
In 1974, passenger traffic reached one million. In 1977, a new control tower was built, as well as a second runway parallel to the old one and a technical base for maintaining MALÉV aircraft. Use of the new runway was started in September 1983.
New infrastructure (1980–2000)
In 1980, the number of landing aircraft and passengers served reached 32,642 and 1,780,000, respectively. The growing number of passengers called for more capacity. A new terminal was decided upon. The foundation-stone of the new passenger traffic building to be built was laid down on 16 November 1983. Since 1 November 1985, passengers have been received in Terminal 2, a 24,000-square-meter facility funded with Austrian loans under general contracting. It was used first by Malév aircraft and passengers, and then by those of Lufthansa, Air France, and Swissair. The old terminal continued to receive residual airline traffic under a new name, Terminal 1.There was an IED bus attack against Russian Jewish emigrants on the road leading to Ferihegy in the early 1990s. The perpetrators were members of the German Communist organisation Red Army Faction.
In 1993, Malév launched the airport's first Hungarian overseas flight, to New York-Newark via Rome. According to the traffic figures forecast for the millennium, the two terminals serving 4 million passengers a year promised to be insufficient. The construction of Terminal 2B was started in 1997. The new building, with more than 30,000 square metres of space, together with a new apron, was opened in 1998, with all foreign airlines moving there. Terminal 2B can receive 3.5 million passengers a year, with its seven gates and five remote stands.
Between 1989 and 1991, Budapest Ferihegy Airport served as a major transit hub for over 160,000 Soviet Jewish emigrants en route to Israel. With direct flights from the Soviet Union to Israel still politically sensitive and unavailable until late 1991, the Jewish Agency and Malév Hungarian Airlines jointly operated a series of charter flights connecting Moscow, Budapest, and Tel Aviv. The operation made Hungary a key logistical partner in the post-Soviet aliyah and symbolized its broader turn toward pro-Western humanitarian policies. Due to its visibility, the airport became the focus of international attention and security concerns, including threats of terrorism and an attempted bombing in December 1991 targeting a Jewish refugee convoy.
Public to public-private ownership (2000–2012)
On 8 December 2005, a 75% stake in Ferihegy Airport was bought by BAA plc for 464.5 billion HUF, including the right of operation for 75 years.On 20 October 2006, BAA announced intentions to sell its stake in Budapest Airport to a consortium led by the German airport group, HOCHTIEF AirPort GmbH, subject to the consent of the Hungarian State.
On 18 April 2007, the renovation of Terminal 1 at Ferihegy was awarded Europe's most prestigious heritage preservation prize, the Europa Nostra award. The designers, contractors, builders and investors received the joint award of the European Commission and of the pan-European heritage preservation organisation Europa Nostra for the renovation of the protected monument spaces, the central hall, the gallery and the furniture at T1.
On 6 June 2007, BAA and a consortium led by HOCHTIEF AirPort formally closed and completed the transaction of the sale of BAA's shares in Budapest Airport to the HOCHTIEF AirPort Consortium. The ownership of the HOCHTIEF AirPort Consortium was as follows: HOCHTIEF AirPort and three financial investors: Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Montreal, GIC Special Investments, Singapore and KfW IPEX-Bank, Frankfurt.
On 26 July 2010, after completing a security oversight investigation in May, the EU authorities revoked Budapest Airport's official "Schengen Clear" certification, due to serious lapses observed in personal security check procedures and unauthorised passing of banned objects. This meant passengers connecting via another airport in the Schengen Zone would have to be rescreened through security, just as foreign non-Schengen connecting passengers, causing delays and inconvenience. The airport argued that it had not yet had time to fully implement new security measures introduced on 29 April 2010, and inspired by the Delta Air Lines' Amsterdam "underwear bomb scare" incident. The airport's layout was also cited as an excuse for the failure. Budapest Airport was the first airport to be checked through a stringent undercover evaluation for compliance with the new regulation. In response, additional security measures were immediately implemented at Budapest Airport causing flight delays at both terminals. Unusually long passenger waiting queues were observed at the busier 2A-B terminal complex's departures area. These problems were solved over time, especially through the opening of the SkyCourt terminal including a central security zone.
On 15 November 2010, Budapest Airport regained the "Schengen Clear"-status, after implementing the necessary security actions and after that, the airport underwent the strict re-inspection.
On 16 March 2011, the name of Budapest Ferihegy International Airport was changed to Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport.
Sky Court, the new expansion project including shops, restaurants and lounges, also connecting Terminals 2A and 2B was opened on 27 March 2011. In summer that year, the refurbishing of the old terminal parts in T2 began and was completed in 2012.