Hungary’s mafia economy and Budapest Airport transportation

I just returned from an enjoyable visit to my birth country. Winter travel has its challenges and living in California made me forget Hungary’s often freezing winter weather. I was also annoyed with Budapest airport transportation, specifically the lack of comfortable and reasonably priced transportation between Budapest Airport and downtown. The airport recently reported that passenger numbers exceeded 12 million by November for the year 2017 with more than one million passengers in November for the first time. (Read airport report here.)

Budapest is a popular tourist destination and visitors get a taste of the country’s “anything goes” economy minutes after arriving to Budapest Airport. Unwanted drivers offer rip-off cab rides to foreigners, one “entrepreneur” followed my wife offering his services in broken English and left her alone only after I yelled at him in Hungarian.

Budapest Airport is only 12 miles from downtown, yet it has no metro or train connection. A high traffic train line is less than a mile away from the airport and it seems that it would be easy to build a connector. Actually, Ferihegy has a train stop but I would only recommend this approach for young travelers with muscle power to carry luggage up and down endless steps and time to figure out the complex transfer to the 200E public bus line.

Public bus transfer from Budapest’s city centre to Ferihegy (Liszt Ferenc) Airport.

Until recently Budapest Airport had no direct bus service to downtown and to top the transportation misery, the Orbán government banned low cost provider Uber. (Read about Uber’s exit from Hungary.)

Budapest Airport promotes an expensive taxi service; it costs 8,000 Ft (about 30 dollars) to take the 12 mile cab ride which can be more expensive than a cheaper plane ticket on WizzAir. To be fair, there is also a shuttle service at the airport. It would have cost 6,000 Ft for us (my wife and I with our luggage) to use it. The shuttle is still expensive and inconvenient when you are the last one to be dropped off after a transcontinental flight. There is also a public bus line, the crowded 200E that has dozens of stops and takes forever to get to the Kőbánya Metro station.

Why is Budapest Airport transportation so expensive and cumbersome? I suspect a cozy relationship between government and city officials and the Hungarian taxi mafia. Their mutual interest is to keep fares high and officials are willing to support this effort.

The government has already helped to eliminate competition with regulations to make it impossible for Uber to operate and only one favored cab company, Főtaxi, can provide airport taxi services. According to the official story Főtaxi was picked “because the company promises reliable, cheap and quality service.” (Read about Főtaxi’s airport monopoly.)

Cheap? The government had created a monopoly. Főtaxi is basically a dispatcher service owned by well-connected billionaires cleverly exploiting drivers who own their cars and act as subcontractors. Not much different than the banned Uber.

Stepping out from the terminal we bump into the Főtaxi booth. We give our address and an attendant gives us a ticket with the cab number and two Hungarian Christmas candies (szalon cukor). The service is efficient but expensive for the low budget traveler. Last year, I wrote about the lack of direct airport bus service. (Read here.) Must be a coincidence, but soon after my article officials announced that government owned BKK would launch a direct bus service, the 100E line as a relatively low cost (900 Ft – less than 4 dollars) transportation.

On the morning of December 31 we flew back to Budapest from a European trip and not having much luggage decided to try the service. In freezing weather we lined up at the 100E stop where the bus parked with closed doors. Using my Hungarian I asked the attendant: Why do we have to stand in the cold? Why can’t we board the bus? She discussed it with the driver and the doors opened. We piled in (no luggage racks) and within minutes the bus was jam packed. More people arrived and the attendant tried to squeeze them in when we were already smashed like sardines. Then we learned that we have to wait another 22 minutes because the bus leaves every half hour.

The ride was horrible, the bus was hot with no fresh air. An older Italian couple was visibly alarmed and I rarely feel claustrophobic but my wife and I decided to get off as soon as we could. When the bus stopped at Kálvin tér, we got out. I’m not the only one who has problems with this service, here is a Hungarian video report about the summer horrors of line 100E. (Watch video here.)

If you tried the 100E service once you will probably gladly pay the 8,000 Ft to the Hungarian taxi establishment; maybe this was a hidden agenda with the introduction of the 100E “torture” line. Politicians or EU officials probably never take public transportation. They should try the 100E and 200E lines for a first-hand experience of a failed policy which stifles competition, punishes low cost travelers and generates millions for connected cronies.

  • Although I have some reservations about Uber’s practices, Hungarian customers would benefit from this service and Uber would vastly improve competition.
  • Budapest Airport should cancel Főtaxi’s overpriced taxi monopoly.
  • Private, independent companies should be allowed to establish frequent dedicated bus services, just like they do in many European capitals with specialized buses, luggage racks etc.

With open competition, fares would drop and traffic congestion, pollution around the airport would be reduced. Another side-effect: funds for fueling the ongoing taxi corruption might dry out and competition among cab companies would be more honest and transparent. OK, I shall stop dreaming…

György Lázár

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