Property 19 February 2026, 3:10pm

Portfolio

In January, the government announced an international public procurement tender for the development of the €1 billion Airport Express Rail Link. Máté Lóga expects

to receive numerous bids for the project.

The development will involve constructing 27 km of railway, which will be integrated into the existing network when the second section is built in 2033–34.

A rail link connecting the airport with downtown Budapest has been planned for decades. The idea was floated during the first Orbán government (1998-2002), in 1999, and the head of state railway company MÁV estimated in 2001 that works could be completed by the end of 2003. In the summer of 2002, it was announced that a new rail link would be built instead of using existing lines, with construction due to be completed by the end of 2005. Needless to say, this did not come to fruition.

In 2012, China Civil Engineering Construction Corp signed a memorandum worth USD 1 billion with MÁV on building a 20-kilometre rail express linking the airport to downtown Budapest. At that time the two sides were still trying to work out the proper way on funding and finance. After the closure of Terminal 1 at Ferihegy in 2012 and the drop in passenger numbers, the plan has lost its relevance again. The national airline, Malév, also went bankrupt in February 2012.

At the same time, the development of the high-speed rail link to the airport has been included in the EU-funded facilities for the 2014–2020 cycle. Consequently, it was decided that the high-speed rail link would be financed by EU funds rather than the Chinese Development Bank.

In 2015, it was briefly considered to link the airport with the city by extending the Metro 3 line. This idea was actually floated before the change of regime (1989-1990).

18 agreements were signed by Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Chinese President Xi Jinping in May 2024 in Budapest. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said at that time that the development of a high-speed railway to the Budapest Airport would also be launched, as the number of air connections between the two countries has increased dramatically. The involvement of China in the rail link was considered back in 2012 too.

There has been a need to link the railway station at the original airport (Ferihegy 1) and the new terminals (2A and 2B), which are 6.5 kilometres away on road, since 1985.

Cover image (for illustration purposes only): Getty Images