It’s taken a while for me to get around to doing my first review of this year, but what a way to start! Normally with add-ons I tend to favour aircraft and ground scenery. I spend most of my time in the air, so I want to be paying for something that I will get a lot of use of, either an aircraft or some good ground scenery (see Birds Eye View review). I have some freeware airport add-ons, but very few payware ones, because I spend so little time at airports I don’t feel that I get the full value of what I am paying for. So it was with an open mind that I went into reviewing this offering from Aerosoft.

The airport was opened on May 7th 1950 and was originally built for Maszovlet, the predecessor of Malev. Over the next few decades many improvements were made, but in 1985 the new modern terminal was opened, and a second runway built for the new terminal was also opened.

Ferihegy has 3 main terminals and a smaller one for general aviation flights. Terminal 1, which was recently renovated and opened up to the public in 2005, serves all low cost carriers. Terminal 2A was built exclusively for MALEV, but now also serves it’s code share partners as well. Terminal 2B serves all international flights and airlines not served by 2A. There is also an open air viewing platform at terminal 2.

So now you know all about Ferihegy International Airport, what can you expect from the Budapest 2007 add-on? For starters the product has been developed with FSX in mind, and for people who have already bought Budapest 2007 before FSX has been released, they can now get a FREE replacement in the form of Mega Airport Budapest for FSX, which hopefully will be the subject of a future review! So as you may have guess, this review has been done using FS2004. As always with all products from Aerosoft, it is packed full of high quality features. Not only do you get a superb airport add-on (believe me, superb is an under-statement), you are also buying photorealistic ground textures, autogen and terrain mesh of the capital city itself, which has been lovingly created by Andras Kozma, a native of Budapest.   

Installation is fast and simple. The hardest part is having to wait for the package to download, which at 319mb isn’t the largest of downloads but may still cause problems for those users who haven’t got broadband. After you have downloaded the file, all you have to do is extract it and then run the installer. You will need to enter your registration key during the installation, but that’s about all you have to do. Simple! The package comes with an 80+ page manual which tells you everything you will need to know about the airport, including parking slots and preferred taxi routes around the airport. The manual devotes most of it’s space to charts of the airport so that you can fly as realistically as possible without actually being in a real plane. The charts aren’t of the highest quality, but then again you’re not paying for the charts and these can be found on numerous websites around the internet. The download version costs Eur 19.95 (around £15) which I feel is an excellent price. 

So now that you’ve installed the product, the first thing you are going to do is load up the airport and see what you’ve bought….but this may take a few minutes depending on your system whilst FS loads all the textures etc… If you start up at the gate, immediately the airport begins to come to life. The ramp area is jam packed with moving vehicles ferrying passengers to and from aircraft on remote stands. The textures and quality of the buildings are superb, some of the best I have seen. The runway and apron textures are also worth a mention due to their ultra realistic appearance. The ‘roads’ on the apron can clearly be seen so that if you did wish to take a tour of the airport via car, it would be easy to do so. As you venture outside the airport the roads are still of a good quality and the road signs clearly legible.

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