General airport information
Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport is the main aviation gateway to the Hungarian capital. Officially named after the composer Franz Liszt and still widely called Budapest Airport or Ferihegy Airport, it lies about 24 km (14.9 miles) south-east of the city centre, in the Ferihegy area. In normal traffic the journey downtown takes roughly 30–35 minutes.
The airport is Hungary's largest and busiest, and the country's primary hub for international travel. Its codes are BUD (IATA) and LHBP (ICAO) — the pair that appears on your boarding pass and on flight-tracking sites respectively, explained in full in our guide to the BUD and LHBP airport codes.
After the bankruptcy of Malév Hungarian Airlines in 2012 and the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, traffic has fully recovered: 17,574,413 passengers passed through BUD in 2024. The airport connects Budapest with destinations across Europe, the Middle East, North America and parts of Asia and Africa.
Terminals: everything happens in Terminal 2
Budapest Airport operates as a single-terminal airport for passenger traffic. Terminal 2 is the only active terminal, divided into Terminal 2A and Terminal 2B and joined by the SkyCourt, a central hall that holds most of the airport's restaurants, shops, lounges and passenger services.
- Terminal 2A — Schengen flights.
- Terminal 2B — non-Schengen and intercontinental flights.
- Terminal 1 — closed since 2012. Plans for reopening it, and for a future third terminal, are discussed periodically but nothing is in service.
Because 2A and 2B share one security checkpoint and one central hall, you do not need to know your terminal letter before you arrive — the departure board sends you the right way after security. The full walkthrough, including gate areas and transfer between the two piers, is in our Budapest Airport terminals guide.
Getting to and from the city
BUD has no metro station and no direct train to the centre, so every route into town starts with a bus, a taxi or a pre-booked car. The price gap between them is unusually wide.
| Option | Journey time | 2026 fare | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bus 100E Airport Express | ~40 min to Deák Ferenc tér | HUF 2,500 | Central hotels, fewest stops |
| Bus 200E + metro M3 | ~25 min + ~17 min | HUF 850 | Tight budgets |
| Bus 200E + train from Ferihegy | ~12 min + 22–25 min | from HUF 500 | Nyugati station area |
| miniBUD shared shuttle | 45–75 min | ~HUF 5,500–7,500 p.p. | Heavy luggage, outer districts |
| Licensed taxi (Főtaxi) | ~30–35 min | ~HUF 13,000 to the centre | Door to door, any hour |
Two things catch visitors out. First, your travelcard does not cover the 100E — if you hold one, an add-on ticket brings the fare down to HUF 1,000 instead of the full 2,500. Second, the taxi tariff changed on 1 August 2026: the meter now starts at 2,100 HUF on airport trips, because an 800 HUF airport surcharge was added on top of the 1,300 HUF base fare.
Full detail by route: airport buses and shuttles, the rail route via Ferihegy, airport taxis and the 2026 tariff, private transfers, and all routes to the city centre compared. Heading somewhere specific? See Keleti station or Szentendre.
Parking
BUD has five paid car parks and two kerbside zones, and the choice is worth real money: the same 24 hours costs HUF 7,800 in Relax Parking and HUF 66,000 at the Premium drop-off kerb. On the tariffs valid from 28 April 2026:
- Relax Parking — HUF 7,800 per day, the cheapest long stay, 8–10 minutes away by shuttle bus.
- Smart Parking — HUF 9,100 per day, the cheapest you can walk to (8–10 minutes).
- Holiday Parking — HUF 10,900 per day, 4–9 minutes on foot along a covered passage.
- City Break Parking — HUF 14,100 for 24 hours, for stays of a few hours to a few days.
- Terminal Parking — HUF 21,100 for 24 hours, under a minute from the doors.
Pre-booking online costs less than driving in, and the saving grows with the length of the stay. Every zone, the off-airport operators and how to pay are covered in the Budapest Airport parking guide.
Before you fly
Security at BUD applies the standard EU rule: liquids, aerosols and gels in hand baggage must be in containers of 100 ml or less, together in a single transparent resealable bag of up to one litre. Exceptions exist for medication, baby food and items sealed in a tamper-evident bag at an airport shop.
How much time to leave depends on where you are flying and when — the airport's own advice and the realistic queue times are in our guide to how early to arrive at Budapest Airport. Also worth reading before you travel: security and liquid rules, baggage allowances, Fast Track, and, for non-EU passport holders, the EU Entry/Exit System now in force at passport control.
Eating, shopping and waiting
Most of the airport's commercial space sits in the SkyCourt, which means the choice is concentrated rather than spread thin: restaurants and cafés on several levels, duty free and speciality shops, and paid lounges open to any passenger who buys entry rather than only to premium ticket holders. See where to eat, duty free and shopping, the lounges, and left luggage if you want to explore the city without your bags. Smokers should check the designated smoking areas before heading through security.
Hotels
Several hotels sit close to the airport, which suits early departures, late arrivals, long layovers and business trips. The city centre offers far more choice — luxury hotels, boutique properties, hostels and guesthouses — and because the transport links run 24 hours a day, staying downtown is usually just as practical as staying by the terminal. Options in both areas are compared in our airport hotels guide, and if you are stuck overnight without a room, see sleeping at the airport.
Layovers
A layover at BUD can be spent comfortably inside the terminal — dining, duty free, lounges, free Wi-Fi and quiet corners — or outside it. With five to six hours or more between flights, and with the 100E running every 6–10 minutes in the daytime, leaving the airport to see the centre is realistic: the round trip costs about an hour of your layover. Read what to do on a layover and whether you can leave the airport, which covers the passport-control side of the question.