Arrival and departure from "orphan" airports: Budapest & Zakynthos, where vacation begins and ends

The adventure starts when someone wants to get to Budapest airport now. We were travelling from the 6th district, next to Nyugati railway station, on 20 June 2021, to take the Wizz Air flight at 13:40 for the much-desired holiday. We departed from our home near Nyugati station at 10:35.

The 100E bus (the so called airport express) from Deák tér is back in service, but its schedule - with departures every 30 minutes - makes this service less attractive. The price of 900 HUF instead of the normal fare, and the fact that Budapest passes are not valid on these buses, are further arguments against a service that offers nothing extra in terms of comfort, also no guaranteed seats and no room for your luggage, and the chances are high that you will have to stand during the 40-50 minute journey. A couple of years ago, when BKK (Budapest Transport Center) launched the airport "express" service, there were still 1-2 buses that had some kind of luggage storage and some that had airplane stickers on the side, but it is clear that the product developers who came up with this do not use their own service to the airport, nor do they use public transport at other airports. But if we turn this around (and look at it from the point of view of the tourist coming to our country), it is also a service that can be one of the first things making the first insight as an impression about the entire country.

I often wonder whether it would not be necessary to set up a tourist police and a country image police. Here, the police should be understood metaphorically as the guardians of order. Such an organisation, with some authority and an advisory approach, could be dedicated e.g. to the Hungarian Tourism Agency.

Since Nyugati station was closed for renovation at the time of our trip, we couldn't take one of the MÁV trains to Kőbánya-Kispest or Ferihegy, and of course we couldn't take the 200E bus to the airport. This journey would have taken 45-55 minutes, and would have cost 310 HUF on the train, for which Hungarian Railways also offers a connecting ticket for 300 HUF, which is only valid for the 200E bus to the airport, i.e. 610 HUF for the whole journey.

It is unfortunate that BKK and MÁV's apps do not work together, as the vending machines work on a completely different principle and frankly BKK's vending machines are not at all passenger friendly, plus the foreign language options are more limited than the Hungarian ones, MÁV's has already some vending machine beings which can be used more easily.

Budapest Airport definitely lacks a vending machine selling rail tickets and an information desk.

So the only option was left was using the M3 metro from Nyugati Railway Station to Kőbánya-Kispest (on a Sunday, we were lucky enough to take the metro replacement bus, saving us the transfer at Nagyvárad tér), with a transfer ticket (530 HUF) and the Budapest pass. Our total journey time was 1 hour 10 minutes, which would have been increased by at least 10-15 minutes with a transfer at Nagyvárad square. We boarded the metro at 10:45 and arrived at the airport at 11:50 with a transfer (bus 200E) at Kőbánya-Kispest.

We had been disappointed several times with miniBUD (time, pricing), so we made an attempt to reach the minibus operator by phone, but it turned out that they no longer had one. The price with them would be 5.936 Ft for 2 people, if we could trust a service provider who doesn't even answer the phone anymore... Moreover, with miniBUD, if we are the first to be picked up and we have to go and wait for more passengers, we can expect the same duration as with public transport.

According to the website of Főtaxi, the official partner of Budapest Airport, the price for an airport taxi transfer from the area around Nyugati station is expected to be between HUF 7474 and HUF 9135. The journey time is estimated between 37-45 minutes.

All in all, it is not easy and time-consuming to get to the airport from Budapest, and it is high time to develop a rail or other rail-trail alternative directly connected to the airport, as this, together with the inadequate operational approach, is a serious obstacle to Budapest Airport finally becoming a factor in the region or at European level.

However, as long as airport management is not demanding of the environment for arriving and departing passengers, and as long as they have to arrive or depart to and from dust, overflowing bins, and the closure of construction sites is undemanding and uninspired, as long as the renovated toilets are fitted with the most inefficient taps and paper towel dispensers are not refilled, it will be in vain for the airport experts here in Budapest to work on flight development, and it will be in vain for the MTÜ to carry out any meaningful tourism development. And the neighbouring countries are profiting from the misfortunes of Budapest Airport, which lacks a healthy ownership approach. While Budapest has been unable to restart a decent overseas flight, Dubrovnik airport has received 3 airlines from New York alone several times a week.

Upon arrival, we went straight to the Wizz Air counter in Terminal 2B. Wizz Air's ground handler in Budapest right now is Menzies. They had 3 check-in desks for the multiple flights departing at roughly the same time, of which only 2 were operational, one of which was supposedly for "priority" passengers only. Wizz Air did require online check-in, but we only managed to produce an invalid boarding pass, as our compliance with the Greek entry requirements (vaccination card in English) was checked by the airline via the ground handler. One queue was not moving at all (the one dedicated for passangers paying for priority), while – even we did have priority - we managed to get a boarding pass in the other „normal” queue within 40 minutes.

The speed and kindness of the security check and the fact that we finally didn't have to unpack our laptop was a really positive experience.

We have already written about the toilets in the terminal. Unfortunately, the catering facilities, where you can have a good coffee are the ones that are still not re-opened.

Airport staff in yellow dustbin vests were an odd sight as they hunted for passengers departing for Frankfurt and herded them to the cheap booths in the middle of the terminal.

I wonder who the actual operator of the Master Card lounge is (I am afraid it is Budapest Airport itself), as it is as deserted and shabby as Budapest Airport in general. Paltry, tasteless sandwiches, half-dry pieces of bread, stuffed with something as sparingly as the old days when the aunties used to steal the cold cuts and sandwich stuffing for themselves from school snacks, in welded, hard-to-open foil. It must have been hard to find a company producing something so bad and undemanding in an otherwise well-stocked market. The pancake vending machine would be a good idea if the syrup and porridge dispenser that came with it was of good quality and filled. Gone are the old sweet and savoury snacks, salads, soups, nuts and other snacks and the choice of drinks, whether soft or alcoholic, has dwindled. The coffee machine is a real plus, Nespresso's big machine at least produces predictable quality, as does the filtered water machine. I think the essence and quality of the lounge is also dulled by the fact that grandmothers herding their grandchildren, who are quickly gobbling everything up, can stuff their backpacks full for their air-journey here, while others are changing the nappy of a screaming couple of months old baby.

It was a refreshing experience to start from a much more sophisticated, air-conditioned environment instead of the unpretentious paddock we had previously been in. Here, Menzies was able to separate prioprity and non-priority passengers, but was no longer able to get passengers safely to the plane directly opposite the exit. Airport buses rumbled through the crosswalk without stopping, while no one from the agents outside supervised the process, a simple door opening took place.

Wizz Air’s flight W62455 departed on time and arrived slightly early, and although it is standard low-cost airline practice to separate people who don't pay for a fixed seat, there was enough space available to manage this ourselves and sit next to each other against the airline's wishes. The flight was operated by an Airbus 320 registered as HA-LYS. The plane was spotlessly clean and the cabin temperature was already pleasant at time of boarding boarding. The briefing texts were spoken at an intelligible volume and with a good, understandable English accent.

After arrival, the transfer to Zakynthos was smooth, there was a shuttle bus between the plane and the terminal, the vaccination certificate check was smooth and no other checks were carried out.

We were able to get to our accommodation by a fixed price taxi (Radiotaxi Zakynthos) (Airport-Laganas 17 Euro), there was no other alternative to get to the airport from this point. As the car had been pre-booked for the flight, we were essentially VIPs, bypassing the queue of people waiting to get to our accommodation. The return journey was similarly pre-arranged, at a predictable price (Zakynthos city centre-Airport 13 Euros), on time, conveniently.

We actually got to know the airport of Zakynthos on the way back. It is an airport operated under concession by the Fraport Group. In its more modern edition, it is reminiscent of the standards of the worst Soviet-era domestic airports in many places, below the worse days’ practice of Budapest airport. There is no trace of German sophistication. The airport environment is unpretentious and unclean. For example, when marking out the queues to the check-in desks with temporary cordons, someone did not take into account that it leads to a pillar and creates chaos. Many shops and airline offices stand empty, with unpretentious boarding. Security screening takes place one level up, where there is an escalator and it is disorganised, the crowd was badly and belatedly directed, only a third of the screening positions were open, the security screeners were so many that they were already obstructing each other's work instead of opening another screening point.

I would certainly take away the diplomas of those who designed the airport in Zakynthos, but I would also take away the diplomas of those who were involved as consultants, as clients, or who accepted it. The functions in the building are clearly focused on making tax free sales a success. However, passenger comfort has not been given any consideration. The positioning of the toilet facilities and the number of cabins there did not meet the needs of the number of passengers departing at the same time, so there were long queues and the hygienic conditions were also very poor. There is not enough space at the gates, not only for seating, but even standing room is scarce. I would also question the professionalism of the airport staff who, in order to maximise revenue, allowed such a high frequency and timetable of simultaneous departures of such a large number of aircraft. It is clear that the gates were designed to serve an aircraft with a capacity of 50 passengers, not 200, based on the areas and seating capacities associated with them.

The area around the gates in Zakynthos on the day of our return to Budapest (27 June) was particularly dirty and dusty. It was also difficult to determine who the actual ground handler for Wizz Air was, because the desk at the gate was staffed by a Skyserv employee as well as Swissport’s one, and there were buses from both companies, which would probably have been scrapped at other European airports, and the Swissport bus was especially very dirty and apparently only held together by paint. As the website of Zakynthos airport was not very sophisticated and content-rich, we called Skyserv to ask if they were the ground handler of Wizz Air’s flights there: no, Swissport was. Swissport is probably not so proud of its services in Zakynthos, it would rather not mention Greece or Zakynthos on its website. So Swiss correctness and precision are a thing of the past. A pity.

Wizz Air´s flight W62456 enroute from Zakynthos to Budapest on 27 June was a refreshing experience, the airline performed it on time with its HA-LXA Airbus 321. The aircraft was spotlessly clean. The seating separation worked here too, but we were also able to sit next to each other due to the lower occupancy of the plane. The comprehensibility and audibility of the on-board briefing texts varied greatly from flight attendant to flight attendant on this flight, with some being so over-articulate in English as to make what they were saying unclear. It is a constant bugbear of mine anyway, that the comprehensibility of flight attendants is a safety issue and a risk factor that should be constantly checked by a communication and language consultant, as well as by an acoustic specialist.

Menzies served the arriving flight in Budapest by buses, which were in such a disgraceful state that they give a very bad first impression to those who arrive here and to those who 'just' return home. The seats were damaged, torn and so dirty that even bums would not sit on them.

The arrival of buses at the terminal building and the appearance of the garbage vest-wearing supervisors was sobering. There were two border guards in total on several planes, checking that the conditions of entry were met. If those arriving with vaccination certificates had been separated on entering the terminal from those who had been quarantined, they could have been through in a few moments instead of the pointless 22-minute wait. However, this would require some thinking, and sometimes management would have to lower itself to the level of day-to-day operations at Budapest Airport.

The combination of the 200E bus and the metro shuttle bus between the airport and Nyugati railway station worked well. The airport bus departure area, well...

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