DHL pulls out of airport on Hungarian Sea

DHL confirmed that it would close its logistics base at the FlyBalaton airport, in another blow to the struggling provincial airport in western Hungary, next to Central Europe’s largest lake.

DHL confirmed that it would close its logistics base at the FlyBalaton airport, in another blow to the struggling provincial airport in western Hungary, next to Central Europe’s largest lake.

DHL established a cargo base at the airport in the autumn of 2007, but last summer stopped running daily flights from Dresden in Germany. The base is to close by the end of February.

As DHL confirmed newspaper reports that it was pulling out entirely, Cape Clear Aviation – the Irish-Hungarian company behind FlyBalaton – was already in desperate talks with partners to try and secure traffic for the airport from spring.

The airport suffered a major blow last year when its biggest customer, the Irish budget airline Ryanair, cancelled all routes to FlyBalaton in October.

This move prompted management to suspend all winter flights.

One ray of hope for the troubled airport comes from the German airline Lufthansa, which is reportedly already selling tickets for flights to Lake Balaton from April.

The Hungarian government is keen to revamp Lake Balaton as part of its New National Development Plan.