Wings of desire

The airport management says aviation is restarting in more and more countries in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. More airlines are announcing the restart of flights to and from Budapest, with some new destinations as well.  In the past few weeks Wizz Air has launched four, to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Menorca in Spain and Mykonos and Santorini in Greece. LOT Polish Airlines has launched two, to Dubrovnik in Croatia and Varna in Bulgaria.

The pandemic had the biggest impact on passenger traffic in April, when the number of passengers did not even reach 10,000. However, slow growth began in May and continued in June. Budapest Airport handled 84,781 arriving and departing passengers in June, nearly four times as many as in May, but still 94.3% fewer than the 1,476,257 in June 2019.

Turbo roundabout gives faster access

The two-lane turbo roundabout built on main road number 4 to Budapest Airport Terminal 2 has been opened to traffic, making access to Ferenc Liszt International Airport by road safer and faster. The roundabout was designed to efficiently handle the increasing future traffic to Terminal 2 and the heavy vehicle traffic turning off towards the Cargo City.

It cost HUF 1 billion, 85% of which will be reimbursed by the European Union as part of a support package for a complex landside airport development project.

Turbo roundabouts require motorists to choose their direction before entering the roundabout, thus increasing traffic safety as well as speed and capacity.

All hands on deck

Budapest Airport used the slack period this year for a series of developments that would have been difficult to implement with a normal number of passengers. These included replacing the floor tiles in the Terminal 2A check-in hall. The first phase was completed by the beginning of July, thus passenger security screening can now be performed at both terminals again, and some of the check-in counters on the T2A side are operational again as well.

The area in front of the terminals, used for parking, pickup and drop-off, has been refurbished, with the cooperation of Budapest Airport staff. Those employees of the BUD group who temporarily had fewer tasks due to reduced passengers agreed to help out their colleagues doing painting and maintenance. Repainting in front of Terminal 2 was done with the involvement of 10 security controllers.