Three large German companies have chosen to invest in Debrecen, Hungary's second-largest city, since Lufthansa launched its first direct flight two years ago, it was announced on April 11. 

The number of passengers at Debrecen international airport rose 12% last year, reaching 320,000, and is set to rise to 360,000, according to the airport operator. The strong growth was thanks to new flights operated by Wizz Air and Lufthansa. Debrecen has direct links to eight key tourist regions in Europe and Israel.

Compared to Budapest's airport, Debrecen's airport remains small. Liszt Ferenc International airport posted its best year ever with passenger traffic rising 14% y/y to 13.1mn last year,  which is 50% above 2013 levels. 

Debrecen airport is owned by the local government but operated by Hungarian private capital investment group Xanga, which is working with the government on further expansion of the airport with the goal of making it a regional hub. The city has good prospects, according to mayor Laszlo Papp.

Debrecen is competing mainly with airports in Kosice, Slovakia and Oradea, Romania, which is only a few kilometres from the border. Kosice Airport registered 500,000 passengers last year, down 20% from 2008.

Lufthansa has seen strong growth in Hungary, with an 8% rise in passenger traffic to 1.75mn on its Hungarian routes last year, which outpaced growth in the Central European region. The German airline has launched a sixth daily flight to Frankfurt and has five flights a week to Munich, up from three. Lufthansa earlier said it will operate 178 flights a week to and from Hungary this year.