Budapest Franz Liszt International Airport officially opens SkyCourt – a brand new building linking the existing terminals 2a and 2b – at the end of March 2011. SkyCourt doubles the commercial area of the terminals and provides a wide range of retail outlets, international brands and greatly improved dining options for travellers. The contemporary glass structure offers an impressive view of the Airport’s apron and provides passengers with a truly unique travel experience.
Passengers will be able to move through the new terminal building much faster than before, and the indispensable security screening will also become faster and more comfortable, since 6 new security lanes will be installed on each of the two sides of the SkyCourt. The basement of the building houses a state-of-the-art, computer-controlled, automatic baggage sorting system consisting of five baggage belts.
2010 saw the airport handle nearly 8.2 million passengers and with rapid route development in progress this is set to increase for 2011. Recent route additions include Qatar Airways now operating the airport’s first direct flights to the Middle East and American Airlines commencing direct flights to New York from April. From May AirBaltic will operate flights to Riga in Latvia and Panorama Travel & Tours Ltd will start direct flights to Hamilton in Canada. In addition, KLM, which commenced its operations from Budapest last winter, will become a summer carrier for the first time in many years, with Hungarian travellers able to connect through the airline’s Amsterdam hub, utilising a route that is already surpassing initial projections.
There are also several further routes planned by some of the Airport’s existing airline partners: Wizzair, the fastest growing low cost airline at Budapest, will increase its flights to Turkey from June, with three weekly flights to Istanbul and two weekly flights to Antalya and Jet2.com will launch an inaugural service between Edinburgh and Budapest from April. Both airlines will make the most of utilising Budapest Airport’s dedicated low cost carrier terminal, Terminal 1, which provides handling and services tailored for the low cost sector and passengers.
From June the Airport’s largest network carrier, Malev, will start flights to two Greek destinations – Heraklion (Crete) and Rhodes, with twice weekly services. Budapest Airport is also welcoming two new charter carriers during the summer Holidays Czech Airlines and Sunexpress from Turkey, which will provide much needed supply to the increasing number of Turkish packages that are being sold. In addition, numerous frequency increases are anticipated to cities including Moscow, Manchester, Warsaw, Dusseldorf and Barcelona.
“The vast majority of visitors who arrive in Hungary by aircraft obtain their first impressions of us and our country here at this airport,” emphasized dr. Pál Völner, secretary of state at the Ministry of National Development, in his speech given at the opening ceremony. “The new, more spacious and more comfortable terminal will project a more friendly, more welcoming image of Hungary. Going forward it will also be more a pleasant experience for us Hungarians to return from trips abroad.”
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