Hungarian economy minister Márton Nagy has unveiled his government’s plan to build a €1bn railway between Nyugati rail and metro station in western Budapest and Ferenc Liszt International Airport to the southeast of the city.

The 9km line with an underground airport station will be procured using the public-private partnership route and authorities will issue tenders some time over the next six months.

To catch a train from the airport into town now, passengers have to take a bus to Ferihegy train station – a cumbersome operation with luggage.

The government wants the new railway because Ferenc Liszt is getting busier: In 2024, the airport set a record with 17.6 million passengers, a 14% rise on the previous year.

Nagy said the government is also considering building a dedicated cargo airport, with a likely construction cost of between €500m and €1bn.

Freight flows into Ferenc Liszt have reached the airport’s limit of 450,000 tonnes a year.

Nagy said the government was weighing six possible locations for the facility, both greenfield and brownfield. It wants the site to be remote from residential areas but close to railways and roads.