The live departures board on this page lists every flight leaving Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD) today — scheduled time, revised time, flight number, airline, destination and current status. The airport is still widely known locally as Ferihegy. Below the board is the part the board cannot tell you: what each status actually means for your morning, when the desks and the gate really close, and how long the walk from the kerb to seat 24A takes.
How to read the BUD departures board
Each row carries five pieces of information, and the first one is the one people misread. The time column shows the scheduled departure time; when an arrow and a second time appear, that second figure is the revised estimate the airline has filed. The estimate is what will actually happen — the scheduled time simply stops being relevant once it is superseded.
| Column | What it shows | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Time | Scheduled departure, plus the revised estimate where one exists | An estimate under 15 minutes late is an operational tweak, not a delay |
| Flight | The IATA flight number, e.g. W6 2301 | Codeshares appear under the operating carrier's number |
| Airline | The carrier actually operating the aircraft | May differ from the airline you booked with |
| To | Destination city and its IATA code | The code tells you the airport where a city has several |
| Status | Current operational state of the flight | See the status table below |
The board does not show gate numbers, and that is deliberate rather than an omission: at BUD gates are assigned close to departure and are published on the terminal screens and in your airline's app, not hours in advance. Plan your morning by the time column and pick up the gate once you are airside.
What each departure status means
Status wording is the difference between a relaxed coffee and a sprint through the SkyCourt. The states you will see, and what each one asks of you:
- Scheduled — the flight is running to plan and nothing has changed. No action.
- Gate open — the gate has been assigned and staffed. Make your way there; this is your cue to leave the lounge or the shops.
- Boarding — passengers are being called forward. You should already be at the gate.
- Gate closed — boarding has ended. Arriving now almost never works; the aircraft door and the paperwork are both shut.
- Delayed — the revised estimate is at least 15 minutes behind schedule. Check the time column for the new figure, and keep checking, because estimates move.
- Departed — the aircraft has left the stand.
- Cancelled — the flight will not operate. Go to your airline's desk in the departures hall rather than queuing at the gate, and read up on what EU261 entitles you to.
One warning about "Delayed": a later departure does not license a later arrival at the airport. Airlines routinely recover time, and check-in and bag-drop deadlines are usually counted from the scheduled time, not the revised one.
When check-in and bag drop close
Check-in generally opens two hours before departure, at the desks on the upper departure level of Terminal 2A and 2B. The closing deadline is the one that strands people, and the airport states it plainly: counters close 30 minutes before scheduled departure, and 40 minutes before for low-cost carriers. Passengers arriving after that are not accepted for the flight.
Treat those figures as the floor rather than the plan. Individual airlines set their own cut-offs and several full-service carriers close 45 to 60 minutes out, so the number that governs your morning is your airline's, not the airport's. Wizz Air — which uses Budapest as one of its largest bases — and Ryanair are both at the strict end.
Checking in from home is the single biggest time-saver. Most carriers open online check-in 24 to 48 hours ahead, and with a mobile boarding pass and hand luggage only you can skip the check-in hall entirely. If you have a hold bag, the self-service bag-drop kiosks are usually faster than a full counter. Our guide to how early to arrive at Budapest Airport works the deadlines back into an arrival time for each flight type.
Terminal 2A or 2B — which one is yours
Budapest operates a single passenger building, Terminal 2, split into two connected piers. Terminal 2A handles Schengen departures from gates in the A range, and Terminal 2B handles non-Schengen departures — the UK, the US, the Middle East, Asia — from the B gates. Which pier you use depends on your destination, not on your airline.
The two are joined by the SkyCourt, the five-storey central building that holds most of the shops, restaurants and lounges. Check-in and security are shared, so you enter through the same hall whichever pier you fly from and only separate once you are airside. Terminal 1 has handled no scheduled flights since 2012 and is now an events venue — if a booking site or an old guide sends you there, it is wrong. Full layout in our Budapest Airport terminals guide.
Security screening and the 100 ml rule
Central security screening sits in the SkyCourt between the two piers. Budapest still enforces the 100 ml limit: every liquid, gel and aerosol in a container of 100 ml or less, all of them together in one transparent one-litre bag. Several European airports have lifted this on new CT scanners; BUD has not, and arriving with the assumption that it has is how people lose a bottle of Tokaji at the checkpoint.
One local detail in your favour: at Budapest you do not have to take your laptop out of your bag — tablets and cameras can stay in too. The rule applies to the checkpoint you are standing at, so do not assume the same on the return leg. Prescription medicines may exceed 100 ml and need not fit the litre bag, but declare them. The full list of what passes and what does not is in our security and liquid rules guide.
Fast Track: what it costs and who already has it
The airport sells a dedicated queue-jump lane at security for 2,800 HUF or 7 EUR per person, bought online before you travel or from the yellow Fast Track kiosks in the departure halls of Terminal 2A and 2B. It is free for passengers travelling with a child under three, and around a dozen airlines bundle it with premium fares, as do several premium Mastercard products — check before you buy it twice.
Whether it is worth seven euros depends entirely on the hour. Budapest publishes live security waiting times and standard screening usually runs under ten minutes; at the 05:00–08:00 wave and the early-evening peak that figure stretches, and that is when the lane earns its money. Note that Wizz Air and Ryanair priority products are not the airport's Fast Track. Detail in our Fast Track guide.
Passport control for non-Schengen departures
If you are flying to a Schengen destination there is no border check at all — you go from security straight to the A gates. Non-Schengen departures clear Hungarian passport control after security, on the way into the B pier, so allow for a second queue and keep your boarding pass out alongside your passport.
The automated border gates take travellers aged 12 and over holding a biometric travel document, and are open to nationals of the EU and EEA, the United Kingdom, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates. Passengers with reduced mobility, visually impaired passengers and anyone travelling with a pushchair are directed to a staffed booth instead. Non-EU travellers on short stays are now registered biometrically under the EU Entry/Exit System rather than having a passport stamped — see our EES passport control guide for what the first registration involves.
Getting to the airport in time for your flight
BUD sits about 16 km southeast of the centre, and the journey in is where departure plans go wrong. Euro figures below assume roughly 365 HUF to €1 for orientation; the forint amount is the real one.
| Option | 2026 fare | Journey time | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bus 100E Airport Express | HUF 2,500 | ~40 min from Deák Ferenc tér | Central hotels, fewest stops, 24/7 |
| Metro M3 + bus 200E | HUF 850 on a 90-minute ticket | ~45 min | Tight budgets |
| Train to Ferihegy + bus 200E | Rail fare + HUF 500 | ~40 min from Nyugati | Avoiding road traffic |
| Official taxi (Főtaxi) | ~HUF 13,000–15,000 (≈ €36–41) | 25–40 min | Early flights, luggage, groups |
A note on tickets that costs people a penalty fare: the 500 HUF single ticket is valid for one ride on one vehicle and does not cover a transfer, so bus plus metro needs either two singles or — cheaper — one 850 HUF 90-minute ticket, which allows unlimited transfers. The 100E is a separate product again: standard tickets and travelcards are not valid on it, though holders of a Budapest-pass, Pest County Pass or Hungary Pass can buy a 1,000 HUF add-on instead of the full 2,500.
For a dawn departure, remember the 100E does not run through the small hours. Taxis do, at a meter that opens at 2,100 HUF on airport journeys. Compare everything in our airport-to-city transport guide and shuttle bus guide.
While you wait: lounges, food and duty-free
Once airside, the SkyCourt is where the airport actually happens — the food market, the main duty-free run and the lounge mezzanine are all here, before the Schengen and non-Schengen split, so they are usable whichever pier you fly from.
Walk-in lounge access runs around 15,600–15,840 HUF (≈ €39) for two hours and does not require a business-class ticket. The catch is geography: a lounge on the Schengen side is no use once you have cleared passport control into 2B, so check which zone yours is in before you pay. The SkyCourt Lounge and the Mastercard Lounge sit on the shared mezzanine; the 2A Platinum Lounge is near Gate A8 and its 2B counterpart above Gate B7. See our lounges guide, where to eat and duty-free pages.
Delays, cancellations and what you are owed
When the board turns red, the useful question is not how long the delay is but what caused it. Under EU Regulation 261/2004 a flight departing from Budapest is covered regardless of the airline's nationality, and compensation of €250 to €600 becomes payable when the delay at arrival reaches three hours and the cause was within the carrier's control. Weather and air-traffic control strikes are not.
Two things are worth doing while you are still in the terminal: photograph the board showing your flight's status, and keep every receipt for food and accommodation, because the right to care applies from two hours' delay upward and is separate from compensation. Our EU261 guide covers the thresholds and how to claim.
Meeting a flight or just landed?
If you are at the airport for someone else's flight rather than your own, the Budapest Airport arrivals board is the page you want — it carries the same live data for inbound flights, plus the pick-up rules and the real gap between "Landed" and a passenger appearing in the arrivals hall. For the whole journey from touchdown to the city, see our arrival guide.