It was precisely 16:05 local time in Budapest on 16 October 2012 when the Fokker 100 aircraft of the German carrier OLT Express arriving from Dresden touched down on the concrete in the driving rain. The southeastern German city, served from the Hungarian capital decades ago by Interflugand Malév, has long been missing from Budapest Airport‘s route network.

OLT Express has become the eighth new carrier to commence operations in Budapest this year. During the winter schedule, until 4 November the red-and-white colored Fokker 100s will arrive at Budapest Airport three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 16:10. The flight will spend a mere 30 minutes at Terminal 2 and departs for Dresden at 16:40.During the Christmas and New Year period, between 17 December 2012 and 6 January 2013, OLT Express will commute every Thursday. After the introductory period, during the 2013 summer schedule, the frequency of the flight will revert to three a week.

The Bremen-based regional airline has a fleet of 15 aircraft, which was expanded this year with the Fokker 100s taken over from Contact Air. During the past few weeks, OLT Express’s Fokker 100s were regularly present in Budapest, as they were used to fly the Zurich route for Swiss. The other types used by the carrier are the SAAB 340 and the Saab 2000. In addition to operating domestic routes in Germany, OLT Express also flies to Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, France, Italy and Great Britain.

“We are happy to welcome the new airline and the new flight to Budapest,” said Kam Jandu, aviation director for Budapest Airport. “This new service is more proof that Budapest remains an attractive destination for business travelers and tourists from Germany.I would like to highlight the excellent work by our colleagues at OLT Express and Budapest Airport to put the new flight in place,” he added.

Located in east Germany and boasting a population of half a million, Dresden is an important cultural and economic hub. As the former capital and the royal residence for the electors and the kings of Saxony, the city is home to a world-famous opera house, symphonic orchestras, priceless painting and art collections. It is a buzzing university town which also houses the research and development centers of numerous large companies.

The city and its inhabitants have a lot of connections to Hungary, since a large number of Hungarians studied and worked in the city and the surrounding region during the past decades, leading to numerous family and friendship connections between Germans and Hungarians, which the new OLT Express flight will help to sustain.

Source: Budapest Airport