HUF 50 billion development at Budapest Airport

Budapest Airport Co. Ltd. will make a HUF 50 bn investment over the next five years under its BUD 2020 program, the weekly HVG is quoted by the financial website portfolio.hu. One of the key features of the program will be the new passenger pier B, but developments will include construction of an airport hotel as well as a series logistics and security-related investments that will all begin shortly.

Budapest Airport, the operator of Budapest's Liszt
Ferenc International Airport, said in a statement that the program was
necessary as passenger numbers have been rising dynamically over the past two
or three years, with traffic growing 12.5% in January-May this year.
Construction of the new passenger pier will begin late this year and will take
18 months to complete.

The other pillar of the development project is an
airport hotel, without which an airport cannot belong to the global elite, the
company statement said. Current forecasts put passenger numbers in 2020 at
between 15 and 18 million, and the latter figure would require building a new
terminal, as well.

In the meantime, more check-in counters will be placed in
the existing terminal and the number of parking spaces will also be increased. The
BUD 2020 project also covers substantial security upgrades worth HUF several
billion, including state-of-the-art body scanners at all security gates to
enhance both security and passenger comfort.