On my recent trip to Europe, I had a morning to spare in Budapest, and so I decided to rent a car and do some spotting – as well as revisit the Aeropark Budapest museum.
I arrived from Tokyo via Nagoya and Helsinki the night before, and after getting my car, I went straight to Sarokhaz Panzio – my accommodation for the night.
Spotting at Budapest Airport: Runway 31R Landings
The following morning, I left the hotel shortly before 8AM, and headed to a spotting location near runway 31R.
Before I continue, I will just note here that Budapest airport has a pair of runways – 13R/31L and 13L/31R – that are used simultaneously. In either direction, due to the design of the airport, the “right” runway is used for landings and the “left” one for take-offs.
Now, back to the actual spotting session…
After getting off a roundabout in Vecses, I was off on an unpaved road that led me to the runway. First, I stopped on the road in a place where approach shots could be taken.
As the traffic at Budapest airport is quite slow, I had to wait about 15 minutes until I could photograph the first aircraft. Namely, it was a Q400 of Eurolot.
A couple of minutes later, I got the second one – ERJ-195 of Air Dolomiti. Around the same time, a Hungarian spotter came to the spot as well, and offered to take me a bit further down the road to a better location.
I followed him along the unpaved road for some more minutes, and we arrived at a location along the fence where the aircraft were at a slightly better angle compared to the original approach spot.
As the light was getting worse every minute, I only stayed at the location for about half-an-hour before driving to Aeropark Budapest. Not before the Hungarian spotter showed me some more spotting locations, though. Thank you!
Nonetheless, even in the thirty minutes, I was able to get a couple of aircraft. Those included some European low-cost carriers – such as Wizz Air and Ryanair, as well as carriers like Swiss and Air France.
The highlights for me, though, were an Israir A320 and a Lufthansa A320neo.
Revisiting Aeropark Budapest
With the weather being excellent, but the spotting conditions getting worse due to sun’s position, I headed to Aeropark Budapest – an excellent aviation museum located next to the airport.
And, while I reviewed the museum before, it has moved to a new location since then.
In spite of the move (to a place across the road from the original location), the excellent collection of aircraft remained in its original form – you can still see Tupolev Tu-154 and Tu-134 there, as well as a pair of Ilyushin Il-18s and Yakovlev Yak-40s among other aircraft.
If you are interested in the museum, besides reading my old article, I also recommend watching the below video where I did a walk-around of the museum including some commentary.
I spent the rest of the morning at the museum before returning the car and calling it a day.
I was very happy to find that while the conditions for photography got worse for some of the aircraft with the move, it was nowhere near as bad as I had imagined from some of the photos I had seen before going to the renovated museum.
Below are some more photos I took during my visit so that you can judge for yourself.
