Budapest Airport sustainability scheme gets international award

Photo: www.bud.hu

The Airports Council International Europe (ACI Europe) has granted its ACI Eco-Innovation Award to Budapest Airport, recognising a sustainability scheme that the operator of Liszt Ferenc International has maintained, Budapest Airport said.

Budapest Airport received two environmental international awards in the space of a month. In October, it was recognized for innovation introduced in the area of sustainable shopping and in November for reducing the environmental impacts of ground transportation involving the airport.

ACI Europe’s Eco-Innovation Award was handed over to Budapest Airport today, as part of an online ceremony. T

he operator received the accolade in relation to climate change, for its program and developments focusing on sustainable transportation and popularizing e-mobility.

Sustainability is a key criterion for Budapest Airport in the course of developments. As part of its Greenairport program, the operator works together with its partners, companies and authorities from the airport on sustainability plans for Ferenc Liszt International Airport.

One of the most important elements of this is to develop mobility in connection with the airport, in order to reduce the environmental impacts of transportation at and near the airport, as well as those of people commuting to the airport.

The operator encourages the use of electric vehicles in its own vehicle fleet and in those of its ground handling partners. A total of 76 ground service vehicles were replaced recently, thus saving approximately 120 000 liters of fuel per year and 300 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. Budapest Airport replaced a fleet of 10 pool and manager cars with electric or hybrid models, thus saving another 19 000 liters of fuel and 50 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. The operator installed 42 chargers for electric and hybrid vehicles so far and this number is growing rapidly as demand for e-chargers continues to grow.

Budapest Airport recently provided dedicated parking spaces and electric chargers for car sharing service providers and Főtaxi, thus supporting sustainable ground transportation by passengers, and employees can get to the airport with a new program developed jointly by Budapest Airport and ride sharing provider Oszkár. The operator is also working continuously to improve public transport, to develop bicycle roads (with 2,5 km of new paths completed recently) and maximally supports the construction of the railway connection.

Dr. Rolf Schnitzler, the CEO of Budapest Airport commented:

“An airport has to cope with today’s challenges and megatrends. The key to this is innovation and thinking ahead; one of the challenges for our industry is to increase the sustainability of our operations. We at Budapest Airport incorporated sustainability as one of our main strategic pillars. Optimizing ground transportation has a huge potential to become more environmentally friendly. Budapest Airport will continue with a long-term mindset, and will continue to focus on sustainable airport operations during the hopefully imminent recovery of the aviation industry. The recognition of our achievement gives us strength to continue with innovative, forward-looking projects.”

Budapest Airport has managed to maintain its carbon neutral status for three years now, balancing energy production and consumption and thus completely offsetting carbon dioxide emissions. The company also joined the NetZero by 2050 initiative last year, whereby it committed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from airport operations to zero.