Budaörs Airport (), is an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

located in the

11th district of Budapest In music theory, an eleventh is a Interval (music)#Simple and compound, compound interval consisting of an octave plus a Perfect fourth, fourth. A perfect eleventh spans 17 and the augmented eleventh 18 semitones, or 10 steps in a diatonic sca ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

and was named after the neighboring town

Budaörs Budaörs (; ; , or ; ) is a town in Pest County, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary. Location A suburb of Budapest, the town lies among the Buda and Csiki hills and the Tétény plateau in the Budaörs-basin. The dramatic ''Törökugrató' ...

. Now serving

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

, it was once Hungary's only

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

History

Until the opening of Budaörs, Budapest's main airport was Mátyásföld Airfield (), east of Budapest. This was a very small airfield, and a replacement was established at

, at the south-western limit of Budapest's city boundary. Planning for the airport started in 1935, and in 1936, design competitions for the

terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output devices for a computer * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together ** Battery terminal, electrical contact used to ...

and main

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

were held. Construction started the same year, and the terminal was completed in 232 days, being opened on 20 June 1937. The main architect of the terminal was Virgil Bierbauer (), and it is considered one of his finest works. Its grand main hall was particularly noteworthy. The building still exists, but is not accessible to the public. The main hangar was also completed in 1937. With dimensions of by , it was the largest hangar in Europe at the time. It is still in use today. The terminal and the main hangar are protected historical monuments. The airfield was completed in the summer of 1937, immediately becoming the main and the only international airport of Hungary, and the home base of

Malert MALÉRT (''Magyar Légiforgalmi R.T.'') was a Hungarian airline. History The airline was founded on November 19, 1922. By 1929, the airline flew regular flights connecting Budapest with Belgrade and Vienna. The main fleet before 1939 were eight ...

(the forerunner airline of

Maszovlet Maszovlet (short for ''Magyar–Szovjet Polgári Légiforgalmi Részvénytársaság,'' "Hungarian-Soviet Civil Air Transport Joint Stock Company") was a Hungarian airline founded on March 29, 1946. It was a predecessor of Malév. History The fir ...

, which later became

Malév Hungarian Airlines MALÉV Ltd. (), which did business as MALÉV Hungarian Airlines (, abbreviated ''MALÉV'', ), was the flag carrier of Hungary from 1946 until 2012. Its head office was in Budapest, with its main hub at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airpor ...

Airlines and routes

The services operated in the summer of 1938 are shown here: A service from

Heston Heston is a suburban area and part of the Hounslow district in the London Borough of Hounslow. The residential settlement covers a slightly smaller area than its predecessor farming village, 10.8 miles (17.4 km) west south-west of Charing C ...

via Frankfurt was started by

British Airways Ltd British Airways Ltd. was a British airline company operating in Europe in the period 1935–1939. It was formed in 1935 by the merger of Spartan Air Lines Ltd, United Airways Ltd (no relation to the US carrier United Airlines), and Hillman' ...

in April 1939, using

Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra The Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra was an American civil passenger and cargo aircraft built by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation during the late 1930s. An outgrowth of the earlier Model 10 Electra, the Model 14 was also developed into larger, ...

aircraft. By 1950,

had been replaced by

, 51% owned by the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, which operated services to

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

and

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

. Other airlines operating into Budaörs were

Aeroflot PJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines (, ), commonly known as Aeroflot ( or ; , , ), is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Russia. Aeroflot is headquartered in the Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow, with its hub being Sheremetyevo Interna ...

Czech Airlines Czech Airlines (abbreviation: ČSA, ) is a Czech Republic, Czech aviation brand and privately held holding company. Between 1923 and 2024, it operated as an independent airline and served as the flag carrier of the Czech Republic. Czech Airlines ...

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, or simply KLM (an abbreviation for their official name Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. , ),

, JAT Jugoslovenski Aerotransport,

LOT Polish Airlines LOT Polish Airlines, legally Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. (, ''flight''), is the flag carrier of Poland. A founding member of IATA, it is one of the world's oldest airlines. With a fleet of 87 aircraft as of June 2025, LOT is Europe's 16th ...

, and

Transadriatica Avio Linee Italiane (ALI) was an Italian independent airline owned by the Fiat Group, which operated between 1926 and 1952. It was ultimately acquired by Linee Aeree Italiane (LAI). ALI was the country's only pre-World War II airline not to be ...

End of airline service

As early as 1939, it was apparent that Budaörs needed to be replaced with a larger airport. Hills surrounding Budaörs Airport, a lack of room for expansion, and the need for longer, hard runways led the development of what would become

Budapest Ferihegy 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 ...

. Ferihegy was ready in 1943, but was severely damaged by bombing during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. As Budaörs had survived the war relatively intact, it continued its service as the primary international airport until repairs at Ferihegy were completed. Ferihegy was reopened on 7 May 1950, and a

Lisunov Li-2 The Lisunov Li-2 (NATO reporting name: Cab), originally designated PS-84, was a license-built Soviet-version of the Douglas DC-3. It was produced by Factory #84 in Khimki, Moscow-Khimki and, after the factory's evacuation in 1941, at the Tash ...

flew in from Budaörs to mark the occasion. All international services transferred from Budaörs shortly afterwards, and recreational flying and parachuting activities which had gone on at Ferihegy moved to Budaörs.

Current operations

Budaörs is now an active

airport, with many

light aircraft A light aircraft is an aircraft that has a Maximum Takeoff Weight, maximum gross takeoff weight of or less.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 308. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. Light aircraft are use ...

and gliders based there. It is home to several recreational- and flight training businesses, as well as of the Goldtimer Foundation, which restores and regularly gives passenger rides on its vintage aircraft, like the

Polikarpov Po-2 The Polikarpov Po-2 (also U-2 before 1944, for its initial Glossary of Russian and USSR aviation acronyms: Aircraft designations, ''uchebnyy'', 'training', role as a flight instruction aircraft) was an all-weather multirole Soviet Union, Soviet b ...

Rubik R-18 Kánya The Rubik R-18 Kánya () is a Hungarian light utility and glider tug aircraft. It was designed by Ernő Rubik, the father of the designer of the Rubik's Cube. Design Ernő Rubik was a co-founder and the chief designer of the Aero-Ever aircraft ...

and the Rubik R-11b Cimbora.

References

External links

Official website

{{authority control 1937 establishments in Hungary Airports established in 1937 Airports in Hungary Transport in Budapest History of Budapest