Budapest Airport welcomed the arrival of the largest passenger aircraft in the world at 12:35 on Sunday, October 9th. For the first time ever, the 526-seat Airbus A380-800 landed at the central European hub to be greeted by over 10,000 awaiting spectators. The Lufthansa Airbus, flight LH9882 from Prague spent just two hours on the ground before treating the crowd to a stunning low flypast as it departed.

On greeting the aircraft, Jost Lammers, Budapest Airport CEO commented: “This is truly a historic moment for Budapest Airport. Lufthansa has yet again achieved a ‘first’. The airline started operations between Budapest and Frankfurt on August 24th, 1967 with a Boeing 727 jetliner and later, on June 15th 1985 was the first airline to bring the Boeing 747 to Budapest. Welcoming the Lufthansa A380 demonstrates the importance of Hungary to Germany both as a business partner and as a tourist destination. With the recent opening of the bud:skycourt terminal, our largest development project, we can deliver world-class service to passengers travelling between Budapest and major German cities.”

Mr. Ofer Kisch, General Manager Central Eastern Europe, Lufthansa Group added: “We are very pleased to be the first carrier to bring the ‘Giant of the Skies’ to Hungary. It underlines the strategic importance of Hungary for Lufthansa. We are delighted to give the Hungarian public a glimpse of our state-of-the-art A380.”

Lufthansa, Budapest Airport’s largest non-Hungarian airline partner currently operates 12 flights daily between Budapest and major German cities. The A380-800 is the latest addition to the German carrier’s fleet, configured with eight seats in its new First Class cabin, 98 seats in Business Class and 420 seats in Economy Class. The airline operates eight of its 17 ordered Airbus A380’s on routes worldwide including Tokyo, Beijing, Johannesburg, New York, San Francisco and Miami.

Due to the huge interest, Budapest Airport temporarily opened the observation terrace on the roof of Terminal 2A, from where guests had a panoramic view of proceedings. The event made front page news in the Hungarian media with over 80 different media stories published; over 30,000 downloads on YouTube registered and over 20,000 visitors to Hungarian aviation photography and aircraft spotter website, www.airportal.hu logged.