Budapest Airport: profitable and building for the future - with plenty of competiton from its peers

Budapest Ferenc Liszt Airport is Hungary's largest international airport and, after Prague, the second biggest airport in the countries that joined the European Union in 2004. It is also the largest airport to have been privatised in Central and Eastern Europe.

It has been involved in constant skirmishing with neighbouring airports in Central Europe over a period of many years, as they attempt to establish themselves as the pre-eminent gateways to the region, and as collection and distribution hubs. Those other airports comprise Vienna and Prague, both of which lie north of Budapest, possibly Warsaw, and to a lesser degree Belgrade to the south, which although growing rapidly is still some way behind the others. (Bratislava Airport in Slovakia is excluded only because 95% of its passenger capacity is on low cost airlines).

This report looks at present and future growth trends at Budapest, at construction activities, ownership and profitability, and how it matches up to that competition now, across a range of metrics.