Budapest Ferihegy Airport

Arriving at the airport at 4 a.m., we entered to check in, check our baggage. We saw one massive mob in front of the KLM counter area going all the way back to the entrance doors. The small, designated line for baggage drop off and boarding pass printing kiosks were not visible. No signage available. We asked a person in line where to start. They pointed to where the boarding pass kiosks were located. There were no crowd control stanchions to designate a line in front of each kiosk. Having no choice, we joined the mob slowly forcing their way towards the kiosks. 25 minutes later, we reached a kiosk. Check in process was slowed by long response times by the kiosk. After scanning our passports, later on we were asked if we had our passport. Really? Kiosk didn't know it had already scanned it. (What we were not told by our travel company, Viking, was could we have avoided this hassle by printing our boarding pass at the hotel.) 4:40 a.m., boarding passes in hand, we joined the other mob moving forward slowly to access a very short line with crowd control stanchions. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 6:10 a.m., would we make it? I got the impression the airport didn’t have a clue about crowd control, how to use more crowd control stanchions to manage long lines. At 5:20 a.m. we had our bags checked, headed to the security lines. Was shocked to see the security section had crowd control stanchions to manage long lines. Guessing the airport manager has never seen this, never actually gone on the land side the airport. Passing through security, we go right into a fancy, spacious, shopping area. Wow. Going through we reach the area to access departure gates. Was amazed at all the open space for retail sales, shops everywhere, no problem finding space for display racks, etc. No professional management, no crowd control, nothing. Airport managers must only live and work on the airside, never seeing the hassle passengers must go through. Best way to see the Budapest airport is from your plane's window as you fly out to the modern world.

Flying in was fantastic quickly through passport control but had to wait 50 minutes for our baggage. Terminal 2B is modern efficient and has great facilities. Oh how I miss T1 with its old world charm. Flying out was strenuous and a long process. Although we had checked in online we still had to queue for over an hour to get our bags checked leaving very little time to go through the ergonomically bad security again after a long wait. Still as typically Hungarian all staff are extremely polite and helpful. It was the amount of times we had to present our travel documents that become irritating. Hopefully the next time I fly into Ferihegy I will be staying in Hungary permanently.

Ferighegy Airport is a quite efficient clearly signed airport. On our arrival from Amsterdam we were directed to an escalator about 25 meters away from our arrival gate and within 20 minutes we were out of the airport and on our way to our Hotel. Seamless experience there. Leaving Budapest towards Bucharest with TAROM was a smooth experience as well the SkyPriority counters were completely free and we were checked in in a matter of minutes. As they were very strict with the FastTrack we chose for the standard lane as my wife has no Priority status and we did not want to separate there but the queue on this busy 8am was short and efficient and within a small 8-10 minutes we were security cleared. Another few steps in the terminal to the non-schengen departures which were deserted at the time of our departure. The boarding process via the bus (it was a small commuter plane) was less orderly there was a priority section in the bus but which was not enforced so the run to the plane was opened as soon as the bus opened it's doors. Further up for the smoker the cigarette prices are highly competitive and you can take two cartons when travelling within the EU per person.

Everything seemed to run pretty smoothly here and baggage arrived quickly. The handlers were quite efficient at getting missing bag to me after it arrived on the next flight. Departing there was about a 20 min queue at the Lufthansa check in but security was quite quick.

Travel here quite often. WIFI used to be unusable at all but things are progressing. The queueing is usually fast but you bet your shoes or only metal glasses will beep - most sensitive metal detector on earth. Personnel generally not pleasant given by culture. Forgot phone once on board nobody bothered much to help me and nobody ever called back despite they promised etc. From service point still lot to learn.

Great. Extremely clean facilities great food and great observation tower. The only minor blip was the queuing which took a while but its what I suspected would happen. Great airport would fly from there again.

The airport terminal 2B is now comfortable and check in desks satisfactory. The worst thing is the long walk through a covered way but open to the elements so you can get soaked if wind and raining. You then have to stand for such a long time (once over an hour) in the "cattle sheds" which are baking hot in summer and your plane hasn't even arrived at airport. Once in this shed there are no toilet facilities or any seating. Hopefully this situation will be improved in near future.

When departing from here arrive 3+ hours before boarding - only one baggage wrapping point was available - we spent 30 minutes in the queue and could only pay by cash. No signage for the ATMs. Security lines were understaffed. There were only 4 safety lines working and it was very inconvenient to put on shoes after security check without a seat. Immigration was slow due to IT system problems. The rest of airport facilities we used like baggage drop-off overall air-conditioning cleanliness customs for tax refund the tax refund itself duty free shops were as expected. So in general the airport was rather a nervous disappointment - can do better.

The airport is very small and cramped. Terminal 2 is divided in two parts making it really small and uncomfortable. Queues are huge both at check-in and security. If not for the Skycourt after security and the maze-like duty-free it would really be claustrophobic with the lack of daylight being a real nuisance. The link to the city is very poor. The bus / metro combination is both uncomfortable and expensive making it impossible for you to reach the city center without a transfer. The entire terminal has only one exchange booth but most appalling wasn't their scarcity but the rate they're charging which was nothing short of a scam - welcome to Europe. Coming from Ukraine (IEV) the contrast was even more evident. Toilets weren't clean broken faucets soap lacking in many. Next - the Wi-Fi. BUD supposedly offers 2 hours of free Wi-Fi that is available once you get passed a lengthy security/rules agreement check-page that directs you then onto another useless page that given the speed takes ages to load. Even once passed those mandatory checkpoints the internet was still very slow and almost completely useless. Basically nothing good and I won't be looking forward to going back to the airport in the future. If not for the occasional offers to some places unserved from Belgrade (such as Kiev) it's really not worth the hassle.

Worst airport in the world. No smoking area in an international airport? Come on! What a joke! Even better when your flight is delayed 4 hours and there is no possible way to exit and re enter the terminal. Ridiculous.