Great! Budapest Airport expanded by more than 10,000 square meters – Photos

Pier B, a brand new passenger terminal section of more than 10 000 square meters adjoining Terminal 2B, was inaugurated yesterday at Budapest Airport. Going forward, the facility will be used to handle non-Schengen flights, including the wide body aircraft flying interconwide-bodylong haul routes to North America, China and the Persian Gulf.

The construction of the latest airport development project lasted only one and a half years. The first concrete slabs were broken on 1 March 2017 by the main contractor, KÉSZ Építő Zrt., and the first flight, a Wizz Air service to Astana, departed through the new gates just 17 months later, on 1 August 2018. Since then, the building has been opened to passenger traffic gradually. The total cost of the project is 7.8 billion HUF (25 million EUR), which Budapest Airport financed from its own resources.

The new facility was very much needed, as Budapest Airport has seen double-digit growth, often reaching 14-15%, in passenger numbers continuously during the last four years, with an even greater increase in non-Schengen traffic. This summer, 44 airlines offered direct flights from Budapest to 130 destinations, with another record broken in August, as 1 527 620 arriving and departing passengers were registered.

“All this makes Budapest Airport one of the fastest growing airports in Europe over the last few years and it clearly demonstrates the success of our aviation strategy and all our related airline marketing and route development initiatives and efforts,” emphasized Jost Lammers, the CEO of Budapest Airport during the inauguration. “Of course, our success goes hand in hand with the overall success and strong growth of the whole country in recent years and we will do our utmost to continue contributing to the successful development of Hungary,” he added.

“Pier B is not a palace, it is not a piece of art, but rather a very modern and very functional building that allows safe and secure airport operations and serves the comfort of the ever increasing number of passengers. Still, we have implemented a series of sustainable and state-of-the-art technical innovations while constructing this building.” remarked László Szalados, deputy CEO of KÉSZ Construction Ltd. He also said, “We are far from finishing our activity here at the airport, within days we will commence the construction of a brand new, six-level car parking building before Terminal 2.