The company will pay Ft 6 million a year and a percentage of the turnover to the local governments of Sármellék and Zalavár, which own the airport building and equipment. The airport will reopen on April 1.

A tender to operate the airport was announced after the liquidation of the Irish owner, Cape Clear Aviation (CCA). The airport served 150,000 passengers in 2008, which dropped to around 15,000 after budget airline Ryanair moved out. CCA ran the airport from December 2004 until autumn 2008.

SDC expects passenger traffic to return to 2008 levels within two years and projects an annual investment in operation of Ft 500 million. It also won the tender to lease for Ft 1 billion a 200-hectare site adjacent to the airport, which was formerly an army barracks.

SCD Group, as an operator of camping sites and other property developments around Lake Balaton, could idly watch the shutdown of the airport, CEO Gábor Tomcsányi said in an interview to Népszabadság.

A one- or two-year delay would have been a serious handicap: the airport would have been completely written off as a possible destination, leading to decline in foreign travellers to Lake Balaton, Tomcsányi said.

The contract could be signed within weeks."

Source: Hungary Around the Clock.

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