The Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport, formerly Budapest Ferihegy Airport and still known as Ferihegy, is the largest of the four commercial airports in Hungary serving the capital Budapest. The airport was renamed after Hungarian composer Franz Liszt in 2011. Liszt Ferenc International Airport is with less than 10 million passengers a year fairly small for a capital airport.
The airport was build just before and in the first few years of World War II and was intended for both military and civil use. The high-speed road from the airport to the city, constructed in 1942, is, with improvements of course, still in use today. During the war many of the new airport buildings were damaged or destroyed. After the War the airport was rebuild for civilian use.
Most flights from Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport are to Istanbul and to Frankfurt but there are many more flights to other destinations as well, most of them by Wizz Air. Every day there are flights to 20 destinations from Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport. Here are the most popular destinations:
Budapest Airport was greatly affected by the collapse in 2012 of Malév, the Hungarian national airline. Suddenly the airport lost 60% of its passengers. Although this was quickly made up by Ryanair and Wizz Air taking over the slots of the former airline, so total passengers quickly recovered. But the airport lost the lucrative transfer passengers and aircraft maintenance. It had to close, temporarily, Terminal 1 and now Budapest Airport uses Terminal 2 only, which is divided into Terminal 2A (For flights to Schengen countries) and 2B (All other international traffic), both are connected by the state-of-the-art Sky Court building, constructed in 2012.
The airport is located 20 km southeast of Budapest.
Terminal 2 is not connected to the train or metro network of Budapest. There are plans to extend the rail network but that may take years. The only public transport option you have now is to take bus 200E to the Kobanya Kispest metro station from where you can get on the M3 line towards the city center. Buses depart and arrive between Terminal 2A and 2B on the ground level. Tickets can be bought at the vending machine. These tickets are valid on all public transport of Budapest so best to buy several, also because you would need one for the metro later. The bus takes about 25 minutes then it takes another half hour to get to the Budapest city center.
See for tickets and schedule: buses: bud.hu .
Taxis are waiting just outside the terminal and can cost 6000 HUF for the 30 minute ride into the city, expect to pay significantly more during rush hours though.
All prices quoted here were found in July 2017
