Tens of billions invested in Balaton Airport
Hévíz to London flights are planned and a Norwegian pilot center is being built.
Within a few years, scheduled flights to and from several major European cities will be operating in and out of Sármellék Airport. Recently renamed Hévíz–Balaton Airport, the total value of investments planned for the site stands at roughly HUF 10 billion.
This year marks the start of a HUF 6.6 billion state-funded infrastructure development project. The entire airport is being redeveloped, which will allow narrow-body aircrafts, Airbus and Boeing planes to fly to destinations such as London, Frankfurt, Tel Aviv and Norway by 2022.
The Norwegian-owned Central European Aviation Cluster, together with the Norwegian Pilot Flight Academy will also build an international pilot school on the site.
The investment will bring Norway’s most significant pilot training academy to Hungary, and the center will train 300 pilots a year, led by eighty instructors and experts. From a HUF 5 billion pot, a dormitory, several classrooms, two hangars with simulators will be established and 17 small, four-person machines will arrive for students to practice.
The importance of the airport will be further enhanced by the fact that it will be connected to Hungary’s major highways in the near future. Tourism in the region is set to increase dramatically over the coming years.
