Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport
Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport is the international airport serving the Hungarian capital city of Budapest. It is by far the largest of the country's four commercial airports, ahead of Debrecen and HĂ©vĂz–Balaton. The airport is located 16 kilometres southeast of the center of Budapest and was renamed in 2011 in honour of the most famous Hungarian composer Franz Liszt on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth.
It offers international connections primarily within Europe, but also to Africa, to the Middle East, to North America and to the Far East. In 2019, the airport handled 16.2 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 losing a large portion of connecting passengers. It had been the hub for Malév until the airline's bankruptcy on 3 February 2012.
In 2015 North-American and Middle-Eastern carriers announced direct flights to Budapest. In 2018 LOT Polish Airlines made Budapest their first hub outside Poland, launching with year-round flights to New York-JFK and Chicago-ORD. In 2018, American Airlines resumed flights to Budapest. American Airlines this time flew from Philadelphia, after flights from New York-JFK were suspended in 2011. PHL-BUD operated for the two summers of 2018 and 2019, May–October, and was planned to continue the following summers as well. Chicago-ORD flights were planned to start in 2020, but were axed in April 2020, just a month before the inaugural flight. LOT Polish Airlines axed their Chicago-ORD flight in August 2019, just days after American Airlines announced plans to operate the same route starting May 2020. Nowadays, the Budapest hub of Wizz Air is the largest of all with more than 60 destinations.
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