Hungarian businessman inaugurates private airport in central Romania

One of the wealthiest businessmen in Hungary has recently inaugurated a private airport in central Romania, connecting it to Budapest. The airport in Remetea, Harghita county, was reportedly opened on the same day as a meeting between Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban and Romanian counterpart Marcel Ciolacu.

A passenger plane of the Hungarian airline Aeroexpress was the first to land, on a test flight, at the airport still under construction, according to the Hungarian news agency MTI, as reported by Hirado.hu and cited by Digi24.

An Embraer 120ER aircraft, capable of carrying 30 people, arrived in Remetea from Budapest. The aircraft passed the border control in Cluj-Napoca, currently a mandatory step. The flight time from the Hungarian capital was 90 minutes.

The area of central Romania is inhabited by many Szeklers, ethnic Hungarians, many of whom hold Hungarian citizenship.

Attila Balázs, the creator and builder of the airport, is one of Hungary's wealthiest individuals, with an estimated fortune of over EUR 80 million. According to G4Media, Balázs, born in Remetea, was ranked 57th in the top of Hungary's wealthiest people in 2021, and is reportedly close with the ruling party Fidesz and with Viktor Orban’s son-in-law.

Dániel Somogyi-Tóth, the founder of the airline, explained that they have been working for years to establish air connections between Hungary and Transylvania, which is difficult to achieve by car or train. They plan to do this based on the experience of their parent company, BASe Airlines Zrt. from Finland, where this method is used to reach more remote areas.

Balázs, the owner of the construction company group Bayer Construct, stated that starting next year, he intends to launch two daily flights between Remetea and Budapest. One of these flights will serve the needs of the Bayer group's business, while the second one will serve passengers from around the world.

Aeroexpress, founded last year, has been operating four weekly flights between Budapest and Cluj-Napoca since the fall of 2022, and they are regularly fully booked, as mentioned in the statement.