I can't think of a good pun for Ferihegy! (Budapest Ferihegy International Airport (BUD))

Member Name: TheChocolateLady

Product:	Budapest Ferihegy International Airport (BUD)
Date:	19/06/05 (277 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: As efficient as it can be considering its size

Disadvantages: small and uncomfortable

Oh, goodie! I finally get an opportunity to be the first person to review an airport. You see, I don't travel all that much, and when I do it seems like I'm always going to the same places. But when I was sent recently to Hungary for a seminar, I came upon Ferihegy – the international airport for the capitol, Budapest, which makes it the national airport for Hungary. When I saw it wasn't on the database here, I asked for it and here's what I thought of it.

§ Overall Size & Looks – this airport seems even smaller than Bucharest but larger than Standstead – but not by much. The décor is mostly gray marble with lots of stainless steel for a very modern look to it. It seems pretty well lit, and on the surface, seems to be very clean, leaving us with a feeling of sterile efficiency. That's to say, it seems a bit cold and not terribly welcoming. I found this to be true of both the arrivals and departure areas, both of which I'll now expand upon.

§ Arrivals – when I landed, I had the initial feeling that this airport was larger than it actually was, mostly since the sleeves from the plane to the arrivals terminal led to a fairly long corridor (not quite Heathrow length, but still a bit of a walk). This must be a newer part of the airport since at one point, on my journey to passport control, there was a set of stairs to descend, just before reaching another building. Having had this experience in Bucharest, I believe that stairs are an indication of a possible engineering defect where different heights weren't properly compensated for. This made me wonder what accommodations they could provide for handicapped persons so they could get from the plan to passport control. However, I did notice an elevator was available, so this problem is probably solved.

The passport control area seems to have had enough stations, but at the hour we arrived, only 6 (about half) were in use. Since we weren't on a large plane, and we seemed to be the only flight landing at that hour, those six stations were all that was needed. However, I do have my doubts that there wouldn't be long lines if they get more than 2-3 flights landing at about the same time.

Since I had only hand luggage (what more do you need for a two day seminar?), I couldn't precisely say exactly how efficient the baggage handling process was except that I did notice only a couple of belts visible for this purpose. If these are the only baggage belts, then I can imagine that getting your luggage could be quite a hassle when the airport is busy. Luckily for my fellow passengers, we arrived at a very quiet time, and no one seemed terribly disturbed or delayed. As my traveling companion and I needed some local cash, we stopped by the money changers and also had a quick pit-stop at the bathrooms. By the time we had finished with this, and were outside, we noticed that others from our flight (who did have luggage to claim) were also getting outside.

§ Out & Back – you may want to note that there are fixed rate taxis waiting just outside the airport to take you into the city for 5600 HUF (that's Hungarian Forint which equals about £15 or a hefty US$28). You should know that this price is only from the airport to one destination in town, so if you think you're going to save by taking a few other people with you who need to get somewhere else, you're right, but the people going to the next stops will have to pay an extra 600 HUF per stop. Moreover, if you get a taxi from your hotel to the airport, the fixed rate jumps up to 6000 HUF (which I'm sure includes a small amount that the hotel takes). Since I wasn't long in Hungary, and was on a strict timetable, I just wasn't into haggling or looking for bargains, so that's what I came up with. I'm sure with more time I could have found better deals. Do look in my "Technical Stuff" area for the airport's webpage which includes other modes of transportation to and from the airport.

§ Departures – my first impression of the departures terminal was that it wasn't much different than the arrivals area décor. Still gray marble, stainless steel and a pretty cold feel to it all. Also, the size was a bit on the dinky side and I felt that if there had been only a few more handfuls of people there (I was one of less than a dozen travelers there when I arrived) that the place would seem cramped and crowded. When you walk in the doors, you're faced with a bank of check-in desks and above the middle of them is a list of the departing flights and which desks will be taking care of which flights. Since I was early for my flight, and it seemed that there were very few flights leaving before mine, I was faced with a bank of totally empty desks. This was a bit disconcerting. And when these desks did become occupied, I found that despite my traveling on the same airline as the clerks at the desks, I had to wait until the persons who were dealing with my flight arrived. Okay, no biggie, I guess, but you'd think that one Malev desk (Malev is the Hungarian national airlines) could take care of all the Malev flights, now wouldn't you? By the time the people came to check-in my Malev flight, there was quite a line of people waiting and with no ropes to keep order, the crowd got a bit confused. I'm sure that this could easily be fixed, even with the limited space.

There's a second floor to the departures area which houses at least one restaurant at one end, and some sort of bar-type thing at the other, but what's along the walkway between the two is a mystery to me, since it was all closed up when I was there. To their credit (for me, at least), at the end where the bar-type thing was there was a smoking area just below it. Having a smoke can help pass the time, but I pity the non-smokers who may have needed to make phone calls since the public phones and the smoking area are together here.

By the way, another thing that struck me when I reached the departures terminal was the complete and total lack of both security and assistance. There's no one checking to make sure that you're in the right place, and there's no one asking you the usual questions about suspicious objects in your bags. Some of you may find this a relief, but I found this particularly strange since the flight I was going on was to Israel. I realize that I was on a Malev flight, but I still would have thought that they would have at least some security prior to check-in. Also, even when I got my boarding pass no one asked me about my luggage – where it had been or if anyone had given me anything. Not terribly smart, if you ask me, and I can only hope that the pleasant lack of terrorist activities in Hungary hasn't lulled them into a false sense of security. Still, after I had checked-in, they did x-ray my carry-on bag and I did go through a metal detector, but that was it. Not what you would call extremely proficient but I suppose it was enough for them – if not for me.

Now, if I had thought that passport control on entry was a bit thin on the personnel side, then on exit it was almost non-existent. There were clearly 8-10 flights leaving that night, and when I went through passport control, already 4 of those flights had begun checking in. Despite this, there were only three people at the passport control desks, and the lines had begun to back up. I'm only pleased that I had arrived extra early so that this didn't worry me as much as it could have, and I can only hope that before the lines got too long, that they put more officers on duty.

With my obligatory duties out of the way, I was free to wander the airport until they called my flight. The thing is there isn't a whole lot to wander around to. In fact, only a small part of the airport even seemed to be open at all. I realize that it was getting to be late in the evening when I got there, but still, you'd think that at least a newsstand would be open. Unfortunately, only the duty-free shop and one eating area was in service. With my remaining 300 HUF in my pocket, I figured I could grab a bottle of water or a small glass of coke, or perhaps a candy bar or even some mints – just a tiny something to rid me of my leftover money. Unfortunately, there was nothing anywhere on sale in either of these areas that had a price tag of lower than 400 HUF, so it was a darn good thing that I still had some bottled water with me!

Before I gave up and opened my own liquid stash, I thought it might be worthwhile to see if there were other areas that might be open, so I decided to take a walk down the corridor. What I found were banks of closed shops (including that illusive newsstand I was hoping to find) and eating areas that were either closed or shutting down. I couldn't see into the newsstand, but the other eating areas had menus still lit up, and I realized that all the prices were about the same. So, despite the urge to use their shower facilities to freshen myself up (a nice plus, that – too bad I didn't have a towel with me), I made my way back to my section of the departures and sat down with my book and previously purchased bottle of water, in the smoking area of the eating section – which is just a part that's on one side of the whole area and not partitioned off at all. Yes, I'm a smoker but I try to be sensitive to non-smokers if I can. That this airport isn't very sensitive to non smokers is a definite drawback here.

I should mention here that the bathrooms and most of the airport seemed pretty clean, for the most part. However, the small eating area that was open was very poorly kept, and despite my early arrival and finding the section practically empty, the tables were dirty and there was quite a bit of mess on the floor and the ashtrays in the smoking section were full. Not a very nice impression, so I may have been lucky to not have had enough money to buy anything to eat – if the seating area isn't clean, who knows what goes on in the kitchen? Know what I mean?

Anyway, the waiting for my departure wasn't all that pleasant either. There seemed to be only about 30-40 seats for a flight that held a good 200 people. This meant being pushed up against your fellow passengers or taking to the floor – which was probably as cold as it looked. I noticed what looked like a glassed-in business class lounge there, but like much of the airport, it was closed, so all the snobs had to sit with us peasants, poor babies! This might have annoyed me if I had been a business class passenger, or even traveling with one of my regular business class colleagues – but I wasn't, so I couldn't get too upset about that.

Since the plan was full, and space at a premium, boarding wasn't very well organized and I felt like I was waiting for the big sale day at Harrods. The single announcement was fairly quiet and could easily have been missed, but since the airport isn't that large, I'm sure those who needed to hear it got the message.

And then, there was a little surprise for us all. Instead of taking a short walk down a sleeve to the airplane, we had to walk downstairs and get into busses which would drive us to the plane. Again, I thought about those passengers who were handicapped and how they would cope with this. I did notice that those people on my flight with pushchairs were having a particularly difficult time of it and I felt sorry for them on that count.

Once I got downstairs I found that there were two busses – one for those seated in the front half of the plane and one for those seated at the back. I obviously must look Hungarian since they assumed I had been informed what bus to go on, but this wasn't the case and unfortunately I got on the wrong bus. This only meant that I had a bit of a longer walk from the bus to the plane, and knowing I was going to be cramped for the ride, an extra stretch of the legs was no great tragedy for me. Still, one would have thought that when they installed sleeves for the arriving planes, they could have done the same for the departures. Okay, maybe they ran out of money or maybe they're planning it for the future (I didn't notice any construction going on, by the way) but still it seems a bit silly to me. I mean, if poor Romania can do it for Bucharest, then why can't relatively prosperous Hungary do it for Budapest? What's more, I'm sure Hungary has far more tourists than Romania does, so they really should be thinking about their convenience.

§ Bottom Line – this isn't a large airport, it isn't terribly comfortable, nor does it feel terribly welcoming. While it seems clean enough, and for the most part just efficient enough to keep people from getting very annoyed with them, they seem to do the barest minimum for their customers. They aren't terribly sensitive to non-smokers or the handicapped from what I could see. The only problem is, it’s the only airport which will get you to Budapest, and so tourists will just have to lump it or arrive by train or car. Would I go there again? Well, the problem is I'd love to go back to Budapest, but I already know from this experience that my arrival and departure will be the least pleasurable part of my trip. No matter – you go to a country to see its sites and airports aren't usually known to be on your list of highlights for your visit. So, if this airport disturbs you, just think about a boat ride on the Danube and try to grin and bear it. Three stars for being adequate.

Thanks for reading!

~~~~~
Technical Stuff:

The webpage for this airport can be found at http://www.bud.hu/english but turn off the sound right away since all you'll get is a very annoying noise of planes taking off – how strange!

Its there that you'll find the following contact information:
Call info: +36-1-296-7000 Non-stop information service
Airport general phone number: +36-1-296-96-96
E-mail: info@bud.hu

The site also has panoramic pictures of the airport – but considering its size, that's not such a difficult thing to do, if you ask me!
~~~~~

Summary: Budapest's International airport is small but efficient but also expensive!