Sármellék International Airport , also known as FlyBalaton Airport, is an international airport in Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 located west of Lake Balaton

Lake Balaton

Lake Balaton is a freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of its foremost tourist destinations. As Hungary is landlocked , Lake Balaton is often affectionately called the "Hungarian Sea"...

 1 km (0.621372736649807 mi) south-southwest of the village of Sármellék

Sármellék

Sármellék is a village in Zala County, Hungary, notable for the Sármellék International Airport.-External links:*...

, Zala County and Keszthely

Keszthely

Keszthely is a Hungarian city of 21,100 inhabitants located on the western shore of Lake Balaton. It's the second largest city by the lake after Siófok....

. Its importance is due to the proximity of Lake Balaton, Hungary's most important holiday resort and the thermal spas of Hévíz

Hévíz Spa

Hévíz Spa and the Szent András Hospital, Hévíz is a spa in Hungary. It is located in Hévíz, on the shores of the lake of the same name.-The story of Hévíz Spa:...

 and Zalakaros

Zalakaros

Zalakaros is a town in Zala county, Hungary.Zalakaros is famous for its thermal bath.Zalakaros, the tiniest city of Hungary, gained its fame in 1967, when an oil prospect drilling resulted in a nearly 96ºC hot thermal spring coming up from 1000 meter...

.

About the airport

A military airport was already located here in the 1940s. It was paved in the 1950s and functioned as a Hungarian military airport until 1960, and as a Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 military airport between 1960 and the Autumn of 1990. The current runways were constructed in 1982.

The airport is owned by the local governments of Sármellék and Zalavár

Zalavár

Zalavár is a village in Hungary, located in the Zala county. It is located around southwest of the Lake Balaton.-Name:In Hungarian, it is known as Zalavár, in Slovak as Blatnohrad, in Croatian: Blatnograd , in Serbian: Блатноград, and in German as Moosburg. It was also known as Mosapurc and Kolon...

 since August 2002, operated by an Irish-Hungarian investment group, Cape Clear Aviation Ltd., since 2004.

Due to financial problems, the airport closed over the winter period 2008–09, but closed indefinitely on 10 October 2009. A new buyer was then sought for the facility. It reopened, however, in April 2010.

Flights

Sármellék International Airport had operated as a public airport since 1991 and became the second international airport of the country on 15 May 2002 (after Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport). It frequently operated charter flights to Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

, Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 and Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

 in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Billund

Billund, Denmark

Billund is the second largest town in Billund Municipality, Region of Southern Denmark, Denmark with a population of 6,139 .-Overview:...

 and Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

 in Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

 in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 and Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

.

External links

• FlyBalaton Airport - Official site
• FlyBalaton Airport data - from the HungaryAirport site