SCD Group, a big developer of tourism properties around Lake Balaton said the airport will receive its first international flight on April 1 after the necessary licences have been obtained and a successful test flight carried out in March.

    Under the agreement, the company operating the airport is to pay a fixed annual fee of HUF 6m and a premium linked with passenger numbers to the municipalities.

    The company expects to invest HUF 500m per year into the operation and maintenance of the airport. SCD Group estimates that the airport could reach the passenger number of 150,000 registered in 2008 in 2012 at the earliest and passengers numbers will only reach the level required for the operation to break-even over the medium-term.

    It was earlier reported that passenger numbers at the airport plunged from about 120,000 in 2008 to 15,000 in 2009 after its biggest partner, Irish low-fare airline Ryanair, stopped flights to the destination.

    SCD Group expects to serve 50,000 passengers at the airport in 2010.

    Cape Clear Aviation, the airport's former operator, was ordered to undergo liquidation by a local court in November.

 

    In the meantime Lufthansa announced it would operate six flights to Hungary's FlyBalaton Airport beginning in April.

 

    Lufthansa will operate weekly and biweekly flights to FlyBalaton Airport from Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Dresden, Leipzig and Erfurt. FB Airport has begun talks regarding the operation of a flight from Basel, Switzerland, and a southern European location to FlyBalaton Airport as well.

    FB Airport expects passenger traffic of 25,000-30,000 at FlyBalaton Airport this year, compared to 12,000 last year, noting that passenger traffic would have to rise to 300,000 annually in order for the airport to make a profit.