Budapest Airport welcomes first Brit Air flight from Lyon

Wednesday 20th June 2012

Budapest Airport welcomed today the first flight on the new Brit Air route between Lyon, France and Budapest.

Operated by the French regional airline, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air France, flight number AF5978 landed at 12.34h, 26 minutes earlier than its scheduled arrival time at 13.00, having departed Lyon at 10.55 in the morning.

The Bombardier CRJ 1000 and its 48 passengers were greeted by a celebratory water canon salute on the runway. Once at the gate, Kam Jandu, Budapest Aviation Director, presented the crew with a traditional Hungarian cake to mark the beginning of this season's schedule.

The new flights offer the only direct service linking the larger of the French city's two airports, Lyon Saint Exupéry airport, with Hungary's capital city. The Brit Air flight will operate twice weekly with departures leaving Budapest on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Frequency will increase to three times a week from 22 September with an additional flight on a Saturday. For the 2012 season flights will operate from 19 June.

• 2012 Schedule:

19June-12 July Depart Lyon 10:55 Arrive Budapest 13:00 Depart Budapest 13:40 Arrive Lyon 15:40

17 July-30 Aug Depart Lyon 09:35 Arrive Budapest 11:40 Depart Budapest 12:25 Arrive Lyon 14:20

04 Sept-25 Oct Depart Lyon 10:55 Arrive Budapest 13:00 Depart Lyon 13:40 Arrive Budapest 15:40

• Local times are shown:

Tickets are available to book now at www.airfrance.hu and start from 155 Euros return.

Demonstrating the importance of this new route Jandu was joined by an elite group of guests including Roland Galharague, France's Ambassador in Hungary, Philippe Maudet, General Manager Central Europe, Air France KLM, JostLammers, CEO Budapest Airport, and Gianni Lanuc, product director, BritAir.

"We warmly welcome Brit Air to Budapest," said Jandu, "Lyon is a very important business and tourism destination in France and today is the culmination of several years' work establishing the route. I am certain this route will be extremely popular for passengers in both France and Hungary."

Maudet added, "Lyon has been one of the most sought-after destinations amongst our business travellers and corporate clients from Budapest for years, so we are delighted to now be able to offer a direct flight between these two key European cities. The new, regular schedule provides greater access for passengers from Budapest to this important region of France. With a flight time of just two hours we are sure this route will be a success."

Brit Air, an Air France subsidiary based in Morlaix (Brittany), operates around 300 daily flights to destinations in France and Europe. The airline operates a fleet of 39 regional aircraft made up entirely of Bombardier CRJ (Canadair Regional Jet) models; the smallest is the CRJ100 able to accommodate 50 passengers and the largest is the CRJ1000, which will be used on the Budapest route.

Air France, with its regional subsidiaries, operates 1,500 daily flights in France, Europe and worldwide.

• About Budapest Airport:

Budapest Airport Zrt. operates Budapest Airport. This is privately owned with German company HOCHTIEF AirPort, one of the world's biggest independent airport managers holding a 49.67% stake, together with a further four financial investors: Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Montreal holding a 18.17% stake; Malton Investment Pte Ltd. holding a 18.17% stake; Aero Investment S.á.r.l. holding a 10% stake and KfW IPEX-Bank, Frankfurt holding a 4% stake.

Budapest Airport aims to be best airport in the Central and Eastern European region and have been recognised for their development projects, customer services approach and marketing activitie.

www.bud.hu