The comfort-free outer building where passengers queue up at the gates for budget flights at Budapest Airport will be converted into an actual terminal by the end of 2019. Building work has already started on the one-storey building.

Boiling in summer, freezing in winter, with little seating and no toilets, the metal-sided building a five-minute walk from Terminal B has been a constant cause for complaint for the many budget travellers from Budapest.

The new mini-terminal should feature heating and air-conditioning, toilets and an outlet for groceries. Passengers will be taken to their aeroplanes in buses rather than stand waiting outside.

More precise details are yet to follow but the clock is ticking – the old building will be banned by decree on New Year’s Day 2020.