Compared to last year’s full-year figures, passenger traffic at Sármellék Airport had already doubled by the end of September this year, the managing director of Hévíz-Balaton Airport told MTI on Monday.

Attila Benkő stated that nearly 9,000 passengers—twice as many as last year—had passed through the airport near Lake Balaton by the end of September. This growth is significant compared to the low utilization rates of recent years, primarily due to the charter flights to Türkiye that began this year; however, major Hungarian sporting events also generated significant traffic, resulting in quite a few one-off charter flights arriving at and departing from the airport near Lake Balaton.

From June through mid-September,

the Antalya charter flights operated by the Turkish airline Tailwind flew at an occupancy rate of approximately 98%, with nearly 4,600 passengers using these services.

“The region was starved for such a travel opportunity,” which is why interest was so high, the managing director stated.

In light of the high demand, next year they will launch charter flights not only to Antalya but also to the Tunisian island of Djerba and to Tirana, the capital of Albania. Regular charter flights from Dresden, which have been operating for twenty years, will continue to arrive during the summer and early fall, and “intensive discussions are underway” regarding the resumption of scheduled flights from Sármellék, Benkő noted.

The managing director also said that passenger traffic at Hévíz-Balaton Airport is expected to reach 10,000 this year, and with just these two new charter flights, the airport’s traffic could increase by an additional 8,000 to 9,000 passengers next year.

Via MTI; Featured photo: Pixabay