Budapest Airport musical

17 April 2011

The new terminal building at Budapest Airport – rather grandiloquently called “Sky Court” - is now open and functioning. More than anything else it resembles a vast covered market, though lacking the steel-glass elegance of the Vásárcsarnok in Fővám tér. More to the point maybe, the airport has been renamed Liszt Ferenc/Ferenc Liszt Airport – it’s the composer’s centenary. For foreigners, Liszt is certainly more pronounceable than Ferihegy, who have no idea what to do with the final “gy”, so probably they mumble it, as one generally does when faced with such linguistic traps. And at least there is no perpetual diet of Liszt’s music being played on the loudspeakers. However, the naming of airports is in itself an interesting area of study. Budapest is obviously following the trend set by Warsaw, where Okęcie was renamed Frydryk Chopin. I support this trend. Other airports should follow. Prague can become Dvořák or Smetana, Rome should be Verdi, and Helsinki can celebrate Sibelius. Vienna, currently Schwechat, could become Mozart Airport, possibly alternating with Schubert, Brahms, Beethoven, Mahler and Schoenberg (that’s the kind of headache you get if you produce too many outstanding composers). Heathrow, on the other hand, will remain Heathrow, Britain doesn’t do things like naming airports after people, that’s for Continentals. – Sch. Gy.