Budapest Airport to shut down Terminal 1

Budapest Airport, the operator of the Liszt Ferenc International Airport, will be closing down Terminal 1, spokesman Mihály Hardy said. After the collapse of the country’s national carrier Malév, Terminal 2 is sufficient to manage the reduced traffic, he added.

As spokesman Mihály Hardy explained, the closure of the terminal will not be carried out overnight, but the employees and the owners of commercial facilities there have already been notified. All the arrivals and departures can be easily taken care of on Terminal 2 alone, he added.

The decline in traffic is attributable to the bankruptcy of Malév. When asked whether Terminal 1 will be reopened if a new national airline was brought to life, Hardy responded that this is not a realistic option right now.

Malév was the biggest player on the Budapest airport, carving out over 30% of total passenger traffic. After its collapse, a number of airlines announced capacity boosts at the Liszt Ferenc Airport but Budapest Airport expects to have lost the transit passengers now that Malév is out of the picture. There were 1.5 million transit passengers recorded in 2011, which corresponded to 17% of total traffic last year.