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Panoramic Balloon Tourist Attraction to Start Service in City Park on May 1 – PHOTOS

Hungary Today 2022.04.27.

An air balloon offering a panoramic view of Budapest 150 meters above the city will await visitors in a new tourist attraction in City Park from May 1, the chief executive of the company managing the project announced on Tuesday.

The balloon has been installed as part of the large-scale Liget revamp project in City Park, Benedek Gyorgyevics, CEO of the Városliget Zrt., told reporters at the site.

The panoramic balloon service will symbolize Budapest, and Hungary’s re-emerging tourism sector in the post-pandemic period,”

he said. For setting up the balloon’s base on the ground, a 10,000 sqm land area has been made into a green space, Gyorgyevics added. The site was formerly the place of a giant beer tent, and next to the hot air balloon launch site, a toilet and café were built.

Photo by Zoltán Balogh/MTI

Zoltán Závodszky, director-general of BallonKilátó (“BalloonViewpoint”), the company operating the balloon, said the French company modeled it after the one depicted by 19th-century painter Pál Szinyei Merse in his famous oil-canvas ‘Balloon.’

The capital, with the Parliament building in the middle, photographed from the Balloon deck on April 26, 2022. Photo by Zoltán Balogh/MTI

The balloon is fixed with cords to the ground and has been equipped to meet the highest safety standards, he said, adding that it is only operated under appropriate weather conditions. The balloon being fixed also means that it will act as a kind of open-air lift.

Photo by Zoltán Balogh/MTI

The balloon, in calm weather:

  • flies up to 150 meters
  • can accommodate up to 30 passengers over the age of 6
  • reaches its maximum height of 150 meters in about 5 minutes
  • spends the same amount of time in the air (5 min)
  • returns to the surface in 5 minutes.

The Puskás Arena, with the Hungarian Geological and Geophysical Institute in the foreground on the left, photographed from the Balloon on April 26, 2022. Photo by Zoltán Balogh/MTI

The Széchenyi Spa and Swimming Pool (from left, front), with the Budapest Circus behind it, and the Biodome on the right, photographed from the Balloon on April 26, 2022. Photo by Zoltán Balogh/MTI

Featured image by Zoltán Balogh/MTI


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