About Us

Aeroexpress 2022 – Our Mission

Our team is reintroducing seaplane aviation to Hungary, with a Hungarian-registered seaplane operating on local waters since February 4, 2022. The history goes back more than a century: the legendary Aeroexpress Rt., one of the first airlines in Hungarian history, began operations in 1922 with passenger and mail transport on the Danube and Lake Balaton.

We have gained significant experience on domestic and international waters with our Cessna 206 Amphibian aircraft, registration HA-SEA. Our training organization HU.DTO.0041 started SEP (SEA) training on Hungarian waters in the summer of 2025 – for the first time since 1940.

The results of Hungarian seaplane flying have attracted international attention: we have established professional relations with the team planning an operation in the waters of Montenegro, where in 2024 the Hungarian seaplane performed demonstration and test flights in front of the local authorities. In 2025, we began close cooperation with the Austrian flight school Motorflugunion Klosterneuburg, whose Lake LA-4 Buccaneer flying boat is now a regular guest in Hungarian waters and is also included in the training offer of our training organization.

Aeroexpress's main goal is to make one of the most beautiful versions of aviation available to anyone through sightseeing flights and to make Hungary an important location for European seaplane pilot training.

During the pandemic our company began to revive the century-old tradition of Hungarian seaplane operation. Our HA-SEA amphibious aircraft first landed on the Danube and then on Lake Balaton in 2022, and since then the landing sites have expanded to include the Tisza River, Lake Balaton and several reservoirs. In addition to continuous Hungarian water operations the aircraft has become a permanent attraction at airshows. We also carried out a sea operations in Greece under the supervision of the Greek Coast Guard and we performed demonstration take-offs, landings, and moorings on the waters of Montenegro for local authorities – we can say that Hungary now has the most extended seaplane operations experience in the region.

Missziónk

Our team

Széchey Márton (1979)

Csapatunk

seaplane pilot, co-founder, co-owner of Aeroexpress, one of the leaders
of the relaunch of Hungarian seaplane operations
Airbus instructor captain and official examiner with 14,000 flight hours
experienced sailor on Lake Balaton and boat captain on the Danube
most experienced Hungarian seaplane pilot

Dániel Somogyi-Tóth (1981)

aviation manager, founding CEO of Aeropark Aviation Museum and Visitor Center
at Budapest Airport, one of the most popular exhibition venues in Hungary
entrepreneur since the age of 19: in 2000, he played an active role with Márton Széchey
in the liberalization of aerial photography, flying nearly 1,000 hours as an aerial
photographer
manager of the re-introduction of Hungarian seaplane operations
co-owner and head of the Aeroexpress airline development

Imre Farkas (1966)

seaplane pilot, Head of Training at Aeroexpress’ training organization with many years
of Hungarian and international seaplane experience
has been flying since 1982, competed as a glider pilot for many years, and is also active
on the waters as a boat captain
one of the most experienced small aircraft instructors in Hungary with over
10,000 flying hours
also works as a parachute jump and glider tow pilot

András Horn (1989)

seaplane pilot, maritime expert of Aeroexpress, professional ship commander
Boeing 737 captain and Cessna flight instructor for a decade
Professional sailor for 15 years; experience in international, inland and coastal
shipping on cruise ships, scheduled passenger ships, floating construction equipment
and tugboats; active maritime authority examiner
also holds a degree in economics

Gábor Nagy (1973)

seaplane pilot, instructor and examiner; former national sailing team member,
8th place in the 2017 Glider World Championship
enthusiastic instructor even after more than 6,000 hours and 10,000 take-offs
Balaton solo sailor, several single-handed Balaton circles and a Fa Nándor Solo Circle,
as well as several Blue Ribbon races, member of the Hungarian team preparing for the
2026 H-Boat World Championship
economist, inspector responsible for examinations at the Hungarian
Civil Aviation Authority

Attila Bánhidy (1980)

Aeroexpress OPS expert
After 5 years of ramp-up, a decade of work in the largest Hungarian AOC:
crew dispatcher, navigator and duty manager
several years of aviation authority work experience
in addition to his degree in economics, he also has a boatmaster's license and
also has practice

Marozsi László (1979)

CEO of Aeroexpress
several decades of diverse entrepreneurial experience
involvement in the HR and visual aspects of the two low-cost airlines operating in Hungary
in the structure of its communication
additional industry experience as a Boeing 737 flight attendant

History of Aeroexpress

Aeroexpress Kft. was established in 2021 by conductor-organist Daniel Somogyi-Toth, founder of the Aviation Cultural Center operating the Aeropark Aviation Museum, and his cousin, Airbus instructor captain Márton Széchey, with their old friend László Marozsi. Planning, however, started two decades ago, when they started their aerial photography business at an age of barely twenty years old, they were already planning the realization their common childhood dream.

Later, they regularly flew with Martin Simon, now another Airbus captain, manager of Bőny airfield and a General Aviation operations specialist while on aerial photography missions. His practical approach always gave extra power to planning. In 2019, Marton Széchey obtained a SEP (SEA) license in Poland. However, the real impetus for the team came during the COVID-19 shutdowns as team members were freed from their daily responsibilities. In 2020, business planning and the search for potential partners started. After several promising and but later withdrawing investors the matter suddenly took a new direction when Daniel got in touch with Gábor Házas in April 2021, whose grandfather was a friend and flight companion of György Endresz, the chief pilot of the 1922 founded Aeroexpress Rt. It turned out that Gábor also had the same childhood dreams and that he and Lajos Dinka from Zürich, sales manager of Awenta Vertriebs GmbH, had been doing similar preparatory business planning before the pandemic.

At the same time, seeing that there was no seaplane for sale on the European market, Daniel turned to their family friend, a chief pilot at Norwegian Airlines, to see if he knew of an available plane. The pandemic played a role here too, because a small Norwegian commercial airline was finally willing to consider selling one of their planes in December 2020 due to lack of tourism. At that time, Daniel was negotiating the purchase based on the intentions of another investor. However, this investor eventually backed out, which almost meant a loss of trust from the Norwegian partner. Especially since, in the meantime, faith in tourism began to return in the spring of 2021 – so the opportunity to purchase the only available European seaplane seemed to be slipping away. Despite this, Marton continued his seaplane flights in Poland and Italy, which was very useful due to the almost unexpected joining of Gábor and Lajos.

After Dani and Marci met several times with Lajos and Gábor in Budapest and Alsóörs, things started to accelerate. The decision was made in Bőny, at the Flyby Aero base where, having learned about Martins' operational background, the decision was made to purchase the Norwegian Cessna 206 and put it into operation at Aeroexpress.

We tested the aircraft for sale in the summer, during which the Norwegians provided the Hungarian team with so much knowledge in the field of operation that – having learned about several European seaplane practices – Aeroexpress specifically decided to follow the Norwegian operations practices. The small Norwegian flag on the side of HA-SEA refers to this as well as the origin of the aircraft.

Gábor, who also worked as a professional boat captain at our strategic partner, the Hungarian Lifeguard Service (VMSZ), started to prepare possible procedures for water take-offs and landings. Meanwhile, Dani, along with the Aeropark team led by Balázs Kránitz, launched the popular Budapest-Budapest sightseeing flights with Boeing 737 aircraft, in addition to numerous flight-related experience programs, which gained such popularity that Aeropark was also included among the strategic partners as the organizer of the hoped-for future Danube and Lake Balaton sightseeing flights. In the meantime, thanks to the ideas and contacts of our friend András Horn, the legal framework and operating form of the first planned landings were also developed, and in Adony, thanks to Mayor Péter Ronyecz, Gábor Bartos and Ferenc Simon, the first location was also decided. Unfortunately, our brother Ferenc has not been with us since November 2024. The mission of Hungarian seaplane operation owes a lot to him.

The Cessna 206 Amphibian, former registered LN-FBI in Norway, finally arrived in Hungary on August 2021. Customs procedures, the withdrawal of the aircraft from its foreign AOC and its Hungarian registration began in Bőny. The first Hungarian-registered seaplane of the 21st century took off from Bőny and returned there with the registration HA-SEA, and flew for the first time on the 22th December, 2022 – exactly 100 years to the day after the first Junkers F-13 aircraft of the old, original Aeroexpress, registration H-MACA, first landed on the Danube on December 22, 1922.

At that time, no Hungarian-registered seaplane had landed in Hungarian waters since 1940. As due to the development of airfield infrastructure after WWII larger aircraft could also operate safely, on land, seaplane flying was pushed into the background and the acquired knowledge was forgotten. The test flights carried out in 2022 were closely monitored by the Hungarian aviation and maritime authorities, and after observing the test operations the most important legal regulations were issued, thanks to which seaplane operation in Hungary has been continuous since then. Legislative refinements have continued similarly to other transport branches. The openness, professional and constructive approach of the Hungarian aviation and maritime authorities, as well as the relevant authorities of the Danube and Tisza rivers and Lake Balaton should be emphasized without which neither the test period nor the legal environment of Hungarian seaplane aviation could have been established.

Our team suffered a serious loss in March 2023: our friend and founding partner Gábor Házas lost his life in an American skiing accident. We shared the belief that as a country of significant rivers and lakes, Hungary could be a true home for perhaps the most fascinating form of aviation, seaplane flying – since then, we have been working on this beautiful task in memory of Gábor.

In recent years, we have visited many water surfaces in our country and met excellent people everywhere. We were able to show many of them the experience of seaplane flying. Based on their feedback, we are concinced that Hungary – through training and flight programs – can become a regional center for seaplane flying. In the hope of this and to achieve it, we will continue to do everything possible.

Alapításunk története

In memory of Gábor Házas

Behind every development there are shared dreams, coordinated thinking and sometimes also battles between professionals. This is also true for Aeroexpress, which is why we experience the loss of our founding partner Gábor Házas as a loss that will never go away.

In addition to managing numerous companies and his lifeguard work, Gábor's life was also connected to aviation at many points. His father recently parachuted into Lake Balaton at the age of 80, and his pilot grandfather flew with György Endresz, who, in addition to his legendary ocean crossing in 1931, was one of the most famous Aeroexpress seaplane pilots from 1922. This also inspired him to take a fundamental role in the relaunch of the Aeroexpress brand in February 2022 as a co-investor and maritime expert, creating the first modern-day Danube and Balaton seaplane flights. Besides his family, the desire for Lake Balaton and Balaton seaplanes became his most important passions in life besides his family. With his excellent organizational skills, determination and coordination with lifeguards and water authorities he served the development and diversification of Hungarian aviation and the enrichment of national capabilities.