This unusual technical solution was made necessary as a result of so many orders received for the winter period. Their existing hangar capacity - up to five mid-size aircraft simultaneously - proved insufficient, so Budapest Airport and Lufthansa Technik made a joint decision to erect a temporary inflatable hangar purely for the purpose of civil aviation - the first in Europe.

The inflatable hangar is produced by Buildair in Spain and already operated at Getafe Air Base, just south of Madrid, where Airbus assembles its military transport and tanker planes.

(L to R): René Droese, Property Director, Budapest Airport; Dietmar Focke, CEO, Lufthansa Technik Budapest and José Antonio Sanz, Commercial Director, Buildair stand in front of Budapest Airport’s new inflatable hangar – the first in Europe purely for civil aviation.

The floor-space of the facility reaches 4000m² and is expected to be operational for six months - or as long as the cold weather dictates. The inflatable hangar has already proven its reliability; safely withholding winds of 70-80 km/hour in the middle of October, a few days after it was erected.

“This type of hangar has already passed the test in Spain, but in Budapest we now have an opportunity to test the durability of the Buildair structure in more demanding winter conditions as well," said José Antonio Sanz, Commercial Director, Buildair. "The inflatable hangar is operated on the basis of the same principle as inflatable covers for tennis courts or swimming pools, but our product is much bigger and is capable of withholding significantly stronger loads.”