Ryanair to Open Budapest Base in Two Weeks With 31 New Routes
On 03/02/2012, in Airline corner, by steve
Ryanair to Open Budapest Base in Two Weeks With 31 New Routes, 2M PAX P.A., SAVING UP TO 2,000 JOBS FOLLOWING MALEV’S CLOSURE RYANAIR FARES START FROM €9.99/HUF2,000 FROM 17 FEBRUARY
RYANAIR MEETING WITH HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT AND
BUDAPEST AIRPORT TODAY TO FINALISE RESCUE PLAN
Ryanair, the world’s favourite airline today (3rd Feb) at a press conference in Budapest announced its intention to launch a rescue plan for Budapest and Hungarian tourism following the grounding of Malev airline last evening. Ryanair confirmed that it will base 4 brand new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft at Budapest Airport commencing in just two weeks time on Friday 17th February where it will open 31 new routes, offering lower fares (€9.99/HUF2,999) than any other airline, and delivering up to 2m passengers p.a., replacing most of the traffic and routes lost by Budapest following last night’s grounding of Malev.
Ryanair, which currently employs over 700 Hungarian pilots and cabin crew, will be holding an open recruitment day in Budapest on Tuesday next (7th Feb), inviting job applications from Malev pilots, cabin crew and engineers to help Ryanair gear up for this 4 aircraft, 2m passenger p.a. base at Budapest Airport. The International Airport Council figures confirm that this 2m pax p.a. will support 2,000 jobs at Budapest Airport.
This largest ever investment in Hungarian aviation and tourism is subject to reaching final agreement with Budapest Airport today on costs, facilities and handling, and Ryanair’s Deputy CEO Michael Cawley has travelled to Budapest to finalise these negotiations with Budapest Airport and the Hungarian Government. Because Ryanair has grounded up to 80 aircraft this winter, it has the capacity to respond immediately to the Malev grounding by moving aircraft, pilots and crews to Budapest within two weeks, in order to minimise the disruption to Hungarian consumers/visitors and tourism as a result of the Malev closure.
Ryanair’s new Budapest base will start on Friday 17th February at fares from €9.99/HUF2,999 and these 31 new routes go on sale at these HUF2,999/€9.99 fares on www.ryanair.com/hu today.
MALEV Ceases Operations
On 03/02/2012, in Airline corner, by steve
After 66 years of almost continuous operations, MALEV Hungarian Airlines stopped all flights as of 0600 this morning.
It is always a sad day when an airline stops operations, just like when any well known, big company closes its doors. There can be no doubt that most of us are reading the news of MALEV’s demise with tears in our eyes. We feel with those whose job has suddenly gone up in thin air. But!
It is important to ensure now that in these critical times emotions are not allowed to dominate and perhaps even more important to avoid the political mud slinging, so popular in Hungary these days. What has befallen Malev is in part indeed due to incorrect political decisions but it is much more important to recognize that MALEV, like many other European airlines, has failed to implement the necessary structural changes, that its efficiency was way below what is possible these days and that these were the reasons why they were not able to find a buyer for the company.
MALEV may have been an object of national pride, but in the meantime nobody bothered with the much more important task of implementing the changes required to make it a more efficient operation. Nobody had the courage to rationalize the number of people working there and to take honest account of what kind of airline would be able to operate profitably from Budapest. Why did they have to refuse a recent Spanish offer that would have converted Malev into a low cost carrier? Just one of the many screw-ups…
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Decennium of HungaroControl – Anniversary in the spirit of development
On 01/02/2012, in Anniversaries, by steve
HungaroControl celebrated the tenth anniversary of its establishment by handing over professional awards and holding a large-scale reception. The Hungarian Air Navigation Services appreciated the work of Anne Kathrine Jensen the CEO of Entry Point North, Qatar Airways and Thales Air Systems.
Hungarian Air Navigation Services became an independent company 10 years ago. During the preceding three decades, it was the Air Traffic and Airport Authority that performed the organisation and control of Hungary’s air transport as well as the operation of Budapest International Airport. In order to divide these two functions, HungaroControl and Budapest Airport were established in January 2002, and in this way, aviation in Hungary also involved three participants. During the past ten years, HungaroControl Pte. Ltd. Co. became a top-ranking service provider of international air traffic control, and one of the most successful state-owned companies in Hungary.
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Is There Life After the National Airline?
On 06/01/2012, in Viewpoint, by steve
There used to be a time when each country had an airline and it was called the flag carrier. Some countries had more than one airline, but generally only one of them was recognized as the “flag carrier”. Those were the times when States regulated flights between their cities and more often than not, connections were based more on political considerations than economic viability. Very few of the flag carriers ever made money but that was not a problem. Taxpayers were “happy” to pitch in to cover the losses (even though they were rarely aware of their own largesse).
You will only find Hungarian products here!
Then times changed, deregulation hit both the US and Europe and airlines were forced to transform themselves into real commercial operations, accountable to their shareholders. Some were successful, others less so. Icons of the industry like Sabena, Swissair, Pan Am and TWA wend bankrupt and disappeared. Consolidation swept through the industry bringing disgrace to some great airlines as they were gobbled up by their rivals (think of Delta and Northwest or, even worse, KLM being bought by Air France). In the meantime, low cost airlines flourished while traditional carriers kept reducing their costs year on year. One thing is sure: through sweat and tears, the airline industry managed to stay on its feet through the worst economic crises the world has seen since the great depression.
Interestingly, there are a few holdouts, kind of legacy “flag carriers” which still struggle along thanks to handouts from their home States which, apparently, have not caught on to the changes taking place in the world.
One of these holdouts is Malev, Hungarian Airlines. I am particularly interested in them because I started my aviation career in 1969 at Malev, who was back then also the owner of the air traffic control service in Hungary.
Malev has never been big and in the communist times they were operating like any other state enterprise. No problem with fuel guzzling Russian aircraft types, no problem with being inefficient and no problem with having roughly nine times as many people per available seat than any comparable western company. Money was not an issue…
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Island hopping with Travel Service
On 18/11/2011, in The lighter side, by heading370
Summer months are of crucial importance for all airlines but they are even more so for those in the charter business. Airliner World was happy to accept the invitation of one of those charter companies, Travel Service Hungary – an affiliate of its owner Travel Service A.S. – to check how their operations are conducted from their Budapest base.
The Czech company was founded in 1997 and became one of the fastest growing Central European charter operators. In 2008 the company transported 2.8 million passengers using a fleet of 18 aircraft. The company has 2 Boeing B737-500, 12 B737-800 (of which OK-TVJ and OK-TVK were delivered brand new), 2 Airbus A320 and two B737-800 on wet lease. They have been present in Hungary since 2001 and operate about 32 medium and long haul flights a week from Hungary while employing 21 full time pilots at that base.
On a beautiful Sunday morning in July at Budapest-Ferihegy (ICAO:LHBP, IATA: BUD) Terminal 2B I met one of the airline’s young captains Peter Buliczka and his crew getting ready for an interesting trip. The flight’s first stop will be at Heraklion, Nikos Kazantzakis airport (ICAO: LGIR, IATA: HER) Crete then we will fly on to Rhodes (Rodos) Diagoras (ICAO: LGRP IATA: RHO) before heading back to Budapest. Some time ago the airline would have operated two separate flights to these two destinations, but because of the falling demand this summer travel agencies struggled to fill these flights every week.
Captain Buliczka introduced me to the entire crew: the captain will be assisted by First Officer Attila Lanc in the cockpit, while in the cabin the usual crew of four will be supplemented by two young trainee flight assistant colleagues under the supervision of Purser Zoltan Koltai.
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Landing Gear Problems – Seen from the Tower
On 02/11/2011, in Life around runways, by steve
Next to the engines, the most complicated single system on retractable-gear aircraft is arguably the landing gear. Not only is it required to sustain huge static and dynamic loads, it must also be able to fold sufficiently to be tucked away in a compartment that would make anyone claustrophobic. Luckily, the landing gear is also one of the most reliable parts of an aircraft. This is as it should be since, as the saying goes, you can land an aircraft without its gear down… but only once.
Last Tuesday, the pilots of a LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 767 rose to the occasion and landed their 767 in Warsaw with the gear up following discovery of a hydraulic system failure that prevented the gear from being extended. After its long flight from Newark, the plane came to rest on its belly but still on the runway with nobody hurt. A bit of luck and great airmanship were in perfect harmony here.
The 767 has short “legs” meaning that the travel of the struts on landing is relatively short and so the damping is correspondingly hard. If you have flown in a 767, you will probably have noticed that it is rare indeed that she arrives back on terra firma in a landing that you would call a “greaser” in old air force parlance. But what the passengers experienced on this landing in Warsaw was the mother of all “hard landings”.
Of course an aircraft coming in to land without gears is something that makes hearts race not only on board but also in the air traffic control units handling the flight. Of them all, perhaps the tower is the most concerned. After all, they will witness in real time and with their own eyes how the landing turns out in the end.
I have memories of two such incidents from many years ago, both involving TU-134s operated by Malev Hungarian Airlines.
The first incident concerned uncertainty about the nose wheel being properly locked in its lowered position. At first it all looked like a normal approach until the pilot radioed the tower as they were descending on the ILS glide-slope that there was a problem with the landing gear and that they wanted to perform a missed approach and go into the holding to investigate. As they whistled over the runway climbing back into the sky, the landing gear appeared to be down but there was no way to ascertain that it was also locked in place. This was one of the older model TU-134s with the glass nose and we all thought of the navigator whose seat is down there in the nose… if the nose wheel folds when it touches down, his seat would be hot… literally.
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A quiet summer. Summer quiet??
On 13/10/2011, in Tower chronicles, by lajos
This summer passed at Budapest Ferihegy Airport almost without any noteworthy events. So much so that the bureaucrats were really in trouble figuring out what to do. In the end they managed to make a “serious” incident from a non-event. They are still mulling over this incident and it has even become one of the feature items in this fall’s refresher training. Here is what happened.
It was at the beginning of the summer that the airport was getting ready for a routine taxiway closure announced by NOTAM. Maintenance was going to work on the taxiway, pumping water from the adjacent drainage canal. This was reason enough to close taxiway A4, one of the busiest. This routine operation should not have been a problem had a small error not entered the picture, setting in motion the domino principle where a series of small errors created a bigger one. I still believe however that if we never had anything more serious than this, we should be grateful… Anyway, the Airport Supervisor (who goes by the abbreviation DAM) was still checking Runway 31R when the NOTAM-announced closure time of the taxiway arrived.
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Re-visiting the Airport Hotel Budapest
On 25/07/2011, in On the go..., by steve
Although it is high-Summer in Europe and most people are enjoying their well deserved holidays, there are others who work hard to make sure that those holidays become the wonderful event everyone was hoping for. Our visit to Budapest this time around was only 5 days and it combined business with a little relaxation. It also gave me a chance to re-visit the Airport Hotel Budapest which we had recommended to our readers in the past. My previous stays at the hotel were mainly in the business season and I was looking forward to seeing how they were coping with the mad holiday rush.
We arrived pretty late on a Friday evening but the ladies at the reception were crisp and friendly in spite of the late hour. Not that I expected anything less! Everything was also squeaky clean as if this was early morning rather than the evening after what must have been a busy day. You may wonder why I mention cleanliness but take the trouble and go to any of the hotel reservation sites and read the customer comments. Complaints about the LACK of cleanliness abound. Obviously, many a house around the world tries to save on the cleaning bill. But this is not something Airport Hotel Budapest is doing and they deserve to be noted for this.
The reception where you are always greeted with a smile.
Five days means five breakfasts and I am always looking forward to breakfasts in Budapest. The breakfast menu tends to offer also fare that I remember from our childhood and which is not available even for gold in the rest of the world. Airport Hotel Budapest offers a complimentary US style breakfast and it has everything any guest could ever want. They also include my childhood favorites!
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No place like home…
On 08/07/2011, in Tower chronicles, by lajos
I am happy to report that I have just survived my first encounter with Liszt Ferihegy’s latest pride, the Skycourt. It was not easy to organize but I managed. Here is the story.
With my better half we were preparing for an early Summer break in Jordan, a country we consider almost as a second home, what with our love for that completely different world and nice people. I can only recommend this wonderful country to everyone, a visit will give a unique experience to all (I would be more than happy to provide the telephone number of our favorite taxi driver to anyone interested).
Skycourt Ferihegy...
The only problem is that you must get there somehow and this is only possible these days via the Skycourt. Like my friend Steve before us, we too had to suffer through this. This was so in spite of me being one of the privileged individuals who are allowed to park their car in the official lot leaving the vehicle there for the duration of our holiday. On such occasions my company gives me a temporary parking permit and a no-name magnetic card which opens the barriers through which the car has to pass. Well, it was this magnetic card that caught the attention of the alert security agent just before our entering into the famous Skycourt. How did I come by it; it is not even valid anymore; how dare I take it out of the country???? I stood there incredulous for there was nothing else I could do in the face of his misguided questioning.
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Bright sunshine from historic Ferihegy
On 30/05/2011, in Flashback, by steve
I guess young people to-day are enjoying their days working at Budapest Ferihegy Airport as we did when we were young and felt that the whole world was ours. There was bright sunshine in those narrow corridors even on rainy days, making even the government-issue gray office doors look somehow inviting.
Of course the sphere came not from the building but the people working there, the people who often did not feel the need to take a holiday because they liked their work so much! We were an enthusiastic lot that is for sure.
It is difficult to pick any one person to write about and not worry that I hurt the others, after all, they all had a story to tell that would deserve a place on Roger-Wilco. Come to think of it though, there are a few who were so well liked and so completely part of the scenery that writing about them would feel natural to everyone else.
The story of Istvan Toth (nickname in Hungarian Totyi) will no doubt bring back memories for most of us old-timers and perhaps give some guidance to those belonging to the younger generation.
Totyi, in the middle up front, circa 1972
Totyi was hired by Malev on 17 December 1969 and he started work in the department that provided the air traffic control service in Hungary. Yes, back then the national airline was running ATC… When the Air Traffic and Airport Administration (LRI) was set up in 1973, he continued there and finally retired on 1 February 2008 from HungaroControl, the ANSP that was formed from the ATS parts of LRI in 2002.
He has spent 40 years and 155 days in aviation and I think that he was one of the best known people at Ferihegy Airport. You know, the kind of guy who, if seen standing next to the pope, would have visitors asking: who is that guy next to Totyi?
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Budapest-Ferihegy SkyCourt, viewed from the tower
On 03/05/2011, in Tower chronicles, by lajos
Our esteemed readers had the occasion to read my friend, Steve’s account of SkyCourt, Budapest Ferihegy Airport’s new pride. Now I would also like to add a few words about this wonder, as seen from the control tower.
Of course I need to go back a bit further in time since this story started much earlier than just yesterday. We need to go back all the way to the 80’s when Terminal 2 was completed. The modern building was the subject of appreciative comments from everyone; even Western airlines gave voice to their satisfaction that was especially significant since they had seen many modern terminals before. These remarks did give rise to some confusion when our less than perfect command of the English language made it difficult to understand what the pilots wanted, using words not contained in the ICAO phraseology books. On several occasions eight of us were bending over the speaker trying to figure out what the pilot was saying until we finally realized that there was nothing wrong with the plane, he was just saying nice things about the new terminal. Such events were anything if not powerful incentives for us to improve our language skills…
So, everyone liked the new Terminal 2 and we slid smoothly into the period known colloquially as the “change of gangsters at the top”… more commonly referred to as the change of political system. Governments swinging from right to left and then right again came and went, only we remained constant at the Air Traffic and Airport Administration (LRI)… As if nothing was going on in the world, the political change passed by, leaving Ferihegy unaffected for a while. We heard of plans to enlarge Terminal 2 but that was all. Then all of a sudden this enlargement became extremely urgent and Terminal 2B was completed in the midst of extensive scandals.
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Budapest’s SkyCourt – will the security check point hold up?
On 06/04/2011, in On the go..., by steve
Budapest Ferihegy Airport has recently opened an impressive passenger hall between Terminal 2A and 2B. It is something truly attractive with an inner space that seems to be even bigger than it actually is… and it is huge by any measure. The architects have really excelled with this steel and glass building which embraces you with light whether it is day or night. You can eat and shop or just sit around while you wait for your flight.
A cute idea picked right from Las Vegas casinos… when you enter the SkyCourt after security control, you must walk through the booze store to reach the rest of the facility. The stores are not particularly impressive though, they are the usual collection of brand names selling stuff at exorbitant prices. But this is not the biggest problem of SkyCourt.
Its biggest problem is the security check point.
I do not know what the experts had in mind when they allocated the ridiculously cramped area for the security lanes… may be they wanted to maximize the commercial space and cut the rest just a little too small. This will be a killer when traffic picks up. Last night there were only about 20 of us and with two lanes operating, we stood in line for almost 5 minutes!
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What is in a name?
On 30/03/2011, in Perspectives, by pbn
Liszt Ferenc...
It is not often that Hungarians manage to get into the news though they have been improving lately. Their antics in the European Parliament and at home recently have resulted in a lot of raised eyebrows and few friends. Now the parliament in Budapest as well as the city fathers have embarked with unusual zeal on a campaign to rename squares and streets with even Elvis Presley likely to get a small park named after him. What exactly is driving this zeal is not really clear but one thing is sure: it has now reached Budapest’s airport which has been called Ferihegy since it opened in the early 50’s.
From now on Ferihegy is (or should be) called Liszt Ferenc International Airport. Do you know who Liszt Ferenc was? I have asked a few people among my contacts and none of them have ever heard of him. If they had to guess, they said he was probably some kind of Hungarian aviation pioneer…
In fact Liszt Ferenc was a 19th century Hungarian composer and piano virtuoso who, by the way, did not speak a word of Hungarian. This did not prevent him from becoming the most technically advanced pianist of his time. He is certainly a more prominent figure in Hungarian history than Mayerffy Ferenc who was the owner of vineyards in the area where the airport now stands.
It is an understatement to say that the name change was not received with cheers in the country. Most people were simply asking the question: why? What the hell was wrong with Ferihegy?
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CRDS Rising from the Ashes
On 09/02/2011, in Just to let you know..., by steve
Few of our readers will still remember the original goal of EUROCONTROL… It was to have been THE European air traffic control organization. Nice dream it was and we all know what happened. More recently there was CEATS, the Central European Air Traffic Services Program which was a bit like a Phoenix, the original EUROCONTROL idea rising from the ashes to integrate ATS in Central Europe. After years of effort and a lot of money, this idea also died.
Scattered in Prague and Budapest were remnants of the CEATS elements that had been set up as the first step in realizing the ill-fated project. Prague had the CEATS Strategy and Development Unit, Budapest the CEATS Research, Development and Simulation Centre or CRDS. This latter was renamed in 2009 to EAVU (EUROCONTROL Airspace Validation Unit) no doubt in an effort to reflect the fact that the CRDS was a viable proposition even after the disappearance of CEATS as such. EAVU or not, the fate of the Budapest simulation centre was sealed when EUROCONTROL decided to close it once and for all.
But HungaroControl, the Hungarian ANSP had other ideas.
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Night run – impressions from a charter flight
On 12/01/2011, in The lighter side, by gabesz77
It is 8.30 in the evening but the briefing room is not empty. We are getting ready for a long trip. Destination: Palma de Mallorca, the capital city of the Balearic Islands. We are the opening flight of the season for Ecotours, the Polish travel agency. We discuss the weather… convection thunderstorm cells have risen all over Europe but they are collapsing as night sweeps over the continent and will not pose any danger. As we board the crew bus that will take us to the airport, it is raining hard already.
The inbound flight, aircraft Papa-Alpha, arrives on schedule. A few funny remarks are exchanged with the incoming crew as they leave for their well earned rest and the passengers are starting to board already. The tour organizer must have known something, we have a full house. 180 guests are expected on board. I type our route into the flight management system: two thousand two hundred and nineteen kilometres… a long leg by any measure. A bit of confusion arises with the seating in the passenger cabin but the girls master the situation in no time at all and we can close the doors.
We push back and start the engines. As soon as possible we signal with a thumbs up to the ramp engineer that everything is OK. Why should he be soaking out there longer than necessary? I release the brakes and we taxi on the tarmac that is more a collection of repaired potholes than concrete. There are pools of water everywhere… In a little while we reach the taxiway where the pavement conditions are much better. Almost as an afterthought the tower issues our clearance:
“Wingair2010 wind zero-one-zero degrees six knots, line-up runway two-niner, cleared for take-off.”
I set the throttles to Flex and read aloud: “Manual flex fifty-six, SRS, autothrust blue.”
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When things go wrong…
On 15/09/2010, in Flashback, by steve
The aviation industry has such a wonderful safety record that people boarding an aircraft rarely, if ever, think about the possibility of an accident happening to them. Of course the same people will have driven down the highway to the airport similarly unaware that, statistically, they were in a much more dangerous place than on board their aircraft. This is as it should be of course.
But for those of us whose life is dedicated to aviation as pilots and air traffic controllers, incidents and accidents have a different meaning altogether. We train to handle them intellectually and emotionally and we do everything we can to prevent and avoid them. Nevertheless, on occasion things do go wrong and we are in danger of being reduced to mere spectators of the brute forces of physics.
But we fight back, to the last breath, the last instruction, the last pull on the control yoke and never give up. In many cases, this kind of resolve can actually beat the odds and we turn a potential catastrophe into an incident of little consequence.
We all have memories of cases where things had gone wrong. Some were more serious than others, in some friends and colleagues flew west into the sunshine never to return in others some escaped with their lives while others did not.
I will never forget the sight of the blackened vertical stabilizer of the IL-18 that flew into the ground in Budapest in bad weather or the voice of the navigator of a TU-134 who continued broadcasting a narrative of what they were experiencing on board as the stricken aircraft that had lost all instruments in near zero visibility slowly rolled to one side finally hitting the ground with its wingtip…
I was on duty when we got the AFTN messages that a Tu-154 of MALEV went missing over the Mediterranean and the message was brought to the duty supervisor by the tearful wife of the captain of that flight (she was one of the operators on duty in the AFTN centre). The IL-18 that went down while approaching Copenhagen in pouring rain, took off from Budapest while we were on duty in the tower.
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From tragicomedy to tragedy
On 10/09/2010, in Tower chronicles, by lajos
Earlier on I called the history of the Ferihegy control tower a tragicomedy. By the first half of 2010 it seems we have been left with tragedy only. There were so many sad and somber events that even a guy with an essentially optimistic outlook like me is left wondering… Why have we deserved all this? Are we such a hopeless people that natural disasters are not enough for us, we manage to add our own to it, lest anyone feel good and happy.
The first half of the year brought two new cases of colleagues flying west into the sunset, never to return. In the spring, Gyorgyi Kardos joined the ranks of heavenly met forecasters and more recently Miki Hamori left us suddenly, after having enjoyed only three short years of retirement. I knew Miki well, we worked a lot in the same shift. He was one of those rare controllers who returned to the tower from approach control and carried shift Charlie on his back for at least 15 years. I consider him a bit my forerunner. He too was mostly not listened to by our managers when in fact they should have listened. He was so full of professionalism paired with modesty that he should really be an example for the younger generation. It was impossible to get bored when he was around. He was full of stories and his metaphors were without equal. Not all his similes were for the faint hearted but they were all spot on and from him even the rougher metaphors were somehow acceptable and never offensive. Consider this: you are lacking like grunts in the Bear brand cheese. For aircraft descending unusually slowly, he had this: he was descending like a pebble in thick shit. Sorry for the rough example but it is hard to find another metaphor that would be more fitting. His wife was also an aerodrome controller and they retired at almost the same time. Sue, our heart goes out to you!
It is probably inappropriate to call a funeral nice but Miki’s funeral was both nice and perfectly fitting for a man who had dedicated his life to aviation. Light aircraft with Miki’s ashes and close relatives on board took off from Dunakeszi Airport near Budapest and they flew to Ferihegy where the ashes were dispersed over the grassy area alongside runway 31L together with the flower seeds people were asked to bring to the fare-well ceremony instead of flowers. It was hoped the seeds would take and bloom, bringing back memories of better and nicer times past. The airport supervisors formed a cross on one of the taxiways with their vehicles while this was going on, a gesture of note and nice sensitivity.
The area where Miki's ashes now rest
I will not qualify the rest of the happenings. I trust the reader to do that for us.
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Staying at the Airport Hotel – Budapest
On 30/08/2010, in On the go..., by admin
For long drives, nothing beats the Grand Voyager
Our latest business opportunities call for an increasing amount of travel, among them to Budapest, Hungary. Budapest is special in more ways than one, including the fact that it is my birth city and coming back even if for a short time is always a pleasure. Last week’s trip was a combined business/holiday affair and we drove “home” in the company Chrysler Grand Voyager. You may look on that car with a disapproving eye from an environmental point of view but in terms of comfort and the ease when you need to haul people and gear, it has no equal in its category.It was of course only natural that we should be staying at the Airport Hotel near Ferihegy. BluSky Services, my company, has a corporate arrangement with the hotel and so we get a great rate but even if you have to pay the normal price, you get excellent value for your money.
It was very late evening when I pulled into their spacious parking lot which has slots also for cars hauling a caravan or which are themselves longer than your usual passenger vehicle. Plenty of parking space there so you will never end up having to find a slot on the street even in the busiest months.
A welcome sight after the long drive...
Our room was also spacious and well appointed and there was no problem at all with finding space for our gear. The beds were very inviting but I know from experience that after having driven 13 hours it is best to take some time to relax before trying to sleep. We were also hungry so we went down to the restaurant that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No matter how late or how early you walk in there, a friendly crew and a full menu card awaits you. The kitchen is a nice combination of international and Hungarian and the food is excellent. Not at all the kind of characterless stuff so many hotels offer you at exorbitant prices. The Airport Hotel in Budapest serves you great food at moderate prices any hour of the day or night.
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Who shall be boss?
On 29/07/2010, in Tower chronicles, by lajos
The story started back in 2009, on 20 April to be exact. As you will see the dates are important, this is why I am trying to remember them exactly. It was on this date that I completed the usual yearly proficiency test and I was so pleased with my 92 % result it never entered my mind that it would some day prove inadequate. In any case, it is only normal that a tower supervisor should achieve at least 90 %, so I was satisfied with myself. You must know about this proficiency test that a simple ground-pounder has 50 questions to answer while a supervisor gets 60… One thing was sure, I could continue to work as SV. (Supervisor or SV in Budapest is the deputy boss of a given shift. DSV or Duty Supervisor is the boss of the shift – Ed.)
A while later on a quiet, December day shift an old student of mine (who is now the boss of the training section but to keep his ATC license he works a certain number of hours in the tower) turned to me and said:
- Lajos, the time has come, here is your chance to become DSV!
- What gives? – I asked emerging from the Supervisor station.
- TC is retiring next year and the bidding is open for his position. Are you interested? – my ex-student asked loud enough for the others to also start listening.
- Rex Lajos, what will become of us without you? Who will they send to torture us? – came the chorus of the colleagues.
- I have no clue. This is the first time I have heard of this. I will think about it. – I replied and returned to the SV station to finish whatever I had been doing in the first place.
But the bug had been planted in my ear. I was thinking, this would be the same group I originally became an SV in… the group where they had that great sphere of companionship, the group that was on good terms even with the colleagues from approach control. True, only two people remained from the original crew but I knew also the young people, if nothing else I met them during their training period.
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Station calling – Visiting the Budapest Airport Hotel, your home away from home
On 23/05/2010, in Station calling, by steve
Hotels serving airports tend to be either dreary or expensive or both and all too often they do not much care about their guests who are in transit and are unlikely to become regulars anyway. One can find good examples of how it can and should be done at the several hotels around Brussels airport and we have now found one that really excels 5 minutes from Budapest Ferihegy airport.
Welcome to the Airport Hotel Budapest.
Jump on their shuttle bus (which you can even pre-order to meet your flight) and you will be taken through an industrial park still being developed near the airport and passing by Hungarian low fare airline Wizzair’s headquarters, you arrive at the hotel after a ride of about five minutes.
The house opened in July 2008 and it looks brand new inside and out. The surroundings could do with a bit of landscaping but that will surely come. Inside you enter a pleasantly appointed, atrium-style lobby with the front desk facing the restaurant. Off to the left is a nice little cafeteria.
Even if you only stay for one night, the restaurant will play an important role in your sojourn. First of all, it is open 24 hours a day! No matter how late you arrive or how early you rise because of jet-lag, a tasty meal is available at all hours of the day and the night. How many big name hotels can boast this kind of service?
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The tower with a soul… 12
On 27/04/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
From shared lunches to more restrictions
As the years passed and we approached the tenth anniversary of being on the job, contact with other colleagues of my age group tapered off. Some of them went to other shifts or even other control units and this did not help of course. But on the few occasions we met, talk was no longer about girls or the pub but our respective aptitude in using Pampers properly. In other words, each of us was busy building a family and this left little time for anything else. Folks in the same shift tended to stick together though and common programs only strengthened this unity. For example (and this was back in the times before the political changes took place) we were members of a so called “brigade”. Sometimes we attended the May Day parade together but the common outings and excursions were the most memorable. One of the most successful trips was to Ocseny. Eight of us crammed into two small Polski Fiat’s, no mean feat! An old friend, VK welcomed us at the Ocseny airport where after we took turns to fly in a small plane above the Gemenc forest. After
each of us consuming a huge portion of “marhaporkolt” (beef prepared in a not quite goulash mode) and some excellent wine from the Szekszard region, it was even more difficult to get into the little cars… but we made it home safely.
On another occasion we were helping at the building site of one of our colleagues. Back then people built their own houses with help from friends. We got immersed in shifting bricks so much that we clean forgot that the group, in its totality, was due for night shift. In the end we reported two hours late and inserted the plugs of our headsets to the loud and forceful cursing of the day crew finally released to go home.
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A tower with a soul…11
On 12/04/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
Small planes, small airports
The change of political system in Hungary was the main driver behind the presence of an increasing number of small aircraft, more and more people chose this way to visit the country. Since there was only one international airport, Ferihegy in Budapest, every plane had to land there to complete the immigration and customs formalities before being allowed to fly to their actual destination. The Air Traffic and Airport Administration (LRI), recognizing the possibilities, soon established air traffic services at the small Balaton Kiliti airport near Siofok, the capital of the Balaton Lake district. We started receiving planes there from the fall of 1989. At first our traffic consisted only of the foreign planes flying over from Budapest and the few planes in Hungarian ownership. This meant just a few planes a day and we were seriously bored most of the time. We spent the hours from opening to closing of the airport in a small wooden barrack and the only excitement was provided by the police helicopters which came to visit occasionally.
Scarce traffic or not, this new life around small aircraft had a charm and novelty for us. Working at the big Ferihegy airport we talked to the pilots only via the radio, at Balaton Kiliti we got to meet them in person. A whole new world opened for us and I for one liked this direct contact very much. I might say it was a much better feeling being able to go out to the plane and do a bit of hell-raising if the pilot did something silly. At Ferihegy this was impossible, everything happened in a much more regimented manner.
Balaton Kility from the air with Lake Balaton in the background
Yes I liked this rural life and was among the first who applied also for the 1990 season. By May of that year, LRI had a kind of terminal built at Kiliti for an exorbitant price. Since they never bothered to consult us, this new building turned out to be of doubtful value. The tower cab on the top was a hothouse in the summer and by midday everyone had to escape or risk a heat stroke. We soon gave up experimenting with that thing and simply stayed downstairs, working from what was meant to be the reserve radio room. It had a terrace and we talked to the planes from there. The building also housed our living quarters, so for four days at a stretch we usually did not set foot in the outside world. This was both good and bad. Tired by evening, we usually stayed put when in fact a bit of night swimming in the lake would have been a good thing.
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New series on Roger-Wilco. The tower with a soul…
On 31/12/2009, in The tower with a soul, by steve
If you enjoyed reading the sometimes incredible stories in Same Time, Same Place, Same Level…, keep your seatbelts fastened! The last part of Same Time having just been published, we are bringing you a new series under the title: The tower with a soul. This will be the story of the first 25 years in the life of the new control tower at Budapest Ferihegy airport.
Presented in several chapters covering the professional as well as the human interest aspects that characterized the first 25 years of the new tower, the series is not trying to be an official history of the edifice or the control unit it houses. It will be the picture as seen through the eyes of a controller who has been there right from the start. Factual, often moving, sometimes a tad subjective… but at all times a real life rendition of life in a tower with a soul.
Part 1 will be posted in the first week of January 2010.
Should MALEV be saved?
On 01/12/2009, in Airline corner, by cleo
Do you remember the term “flag-carrier”? This was usually applied to the airline of a country which was seen as the object of national pride. As recently as a decade ago, when new States came into being, no matter how small, one of their first acts had been to create a national airline (often followed by an air traffic control centre… but that is another story). Of course the aviation marketplace has changed in a big way, there is intense competition between companies, and being a flag-carrier has all but lost its patina.
Airlines have disappeared from the scene, some are gone completely (SABENA) others live on wearing the guise of companies that took them over (Northwest) and still others have kept their colors and name but are now just a division in a mega-carrier (Austrian and Brussels Airlines in Lufthansa, KLM in Air France). Most of them had one thing in common: their long (and not so long) term prospects were all but rosy. Surviving on national pride was not an option.
The problem with Malev is that many in Hungary want to save it because they believe that a country must have a national airline. They also claim that a country’s independence is reduced if it does not have its own airline. These are the worst possible reason for trying to save an ailing company and it costs a lot of taxpayer money before the company folds anyway.
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Anniversary – First radar system deployed at Budapest-Ferihegy airport
On 06/10/2009, in Anniversaries, by steve
50 year anniversary on 6 May 2009
Those who visit Budapest Ferihegy airport these days see a very different facility from what it had been in 1959. If arriving on one of the low fare carriers, you do pass through the original terminal (Terminal 1) but it has changed quite a bit even though an effort was made to preserve the original at least on the inside.
But 1959 was a significant year mainly for air traffic control. On 6 May a radar system was commissioned, the first ever in Hungary used for civilian traffic.
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A short left turn
On 01/09/2009, in Flashback, by steve
The arrival of Lufthansa’s shiny new Boeing 727 in Budapest was an event in itself. The flight from Frankfurt was almost always on time, the 727 looking like it had come from Boeing’s delivery centre the day before… We learnt early that she could climb and descend like no other jet serving Budapest and as such she was every controller’s best friend.
Photo Rafael Klöpper
Although one did not play favorites with any airline, it was hard to refuse when an LH skipper asked for a particular runway or other small “favor” pilots sometimes requested. After several months of uneventful operation one morning we noticed that the return flight plan was filed to Belgrade rather than Frankfurt. So what gives?
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