In mid-September, Budapest Airport officially opened its new 10,000m² Pier B. The pier, which adjoins Terminal 2B, forms one part of a much larger BUD 2020 development programme that the Hungarian gateway is executing
Pier B, which will mainly be used for non-Schengen flights, incorporates 10 new boarding jetways and has sufficient capacity for three widebody aircraft to be served simultaneously.
“This is one of the main reasons for building this new pier,” comments Jost Lammers, CEO of Budapest Airport. “We are supporting widebody operations to North America with American Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines and Air Canada Rouge, while also having regular services from Emirates, Qatar Airways and Air China to the Middle East and Asia.
“We have never had so many long-haul destinations for passengers before,” he insists.
Long-term planning
Lammers talked to Airside about the background to the pier’s construction. “Actually, Pier B had been in our plans since 2008-09 as part of our long-term airport development plan. Its first stage – the central terminal area called SkyCourt – was handed over to traffic in March 2011.
“A year later we lost our home base airline, and some of our development plans were frozen for some time. However, thanks to our successful route development programme, we have witnessed double-digit passenger traffic growth over the last four years.
“Non-Schengen traffic has developed even faster, so this pier’s opening has come just in time – and two months ahead of the scheduled completion date – after construction work that took just 18 months.”
The development wasn’t cheap, but it is going to be well worth the money, the airport operator believes. “The full project cost was 25 million Euros (US$28.9 million), but the project was completed in record time. The first concrete slab on the construction site was broken up in March 2017, and on 1 August 2018 the first flight departed from the new facility,” Lammers recalls.
The need for the new pier was clear, he says – the airport has been attracting more and more carriers and passengers in recent years. “This is the result of several factors,” Lammers explains. “Our airline marketing team has made great efforts to develop long-haul routes with our airline partners, and these efforts had borne fruit by 2018.
“We have never had four transatlantic flights in the same season from Budapest before. LOT Polish airlines operates weekly four flights to New York JFK, and also flies twice a week to Chicago. We have a daily flight of American Airlines to Philadelphia and Air Canada Rouge flies daily to Toronto.
“Hungary and Budapest are very attractive holiday destinations with lots of events, cultural and pop music festivals, and lots of river cruises on the Danube start from Budapest. The economy and investments are booming and this also adds to the need for direct aviation links and excellent connectivity ensured by a strong route network.”
Other airside infrastructure also had to be acquired to serve the new pier before it could open up to traffic. “Before the opening of Pier B we had to build a new taxiway to better connect the new facility for the large long-haul aircraft and also to better utilise our apron capacities,” Lammers informs. “Taxiway F, or Foxtrot, was built for this purpose.
“Plus, our ground handling partners had to prepare for serving mostly B777, B787, and A330 aircraft on the pier. But, flight schedules are always kept and we have not faced any problems with turnaround times of these flights.”
BUD 2020
Pier B is just one aspect of the ongoing five-year BUD 2020 development programme, which is the focus of investment worth between 170 and 180 million Euros ($197 and $208 million). A major part of that will be a new 20,000m2 air cargo centre, with significant amount of extra apron space for freighter handling also to be added at the airport.
Pier B is now open, while the air cargo logistics centre’s construction has just begun, and the airport’s development team is also working on plans to add a new Terminal 3. To be situated next to Terminals 2A and B, the expansion will accommodate the gateway’s expected passenger traffic growth over the next decade.
Moreover, Lammers notes: “We have just started the construction of a new multi-storey car park in front of our two terminals. This will accommodate up to 2,500 parking spaces and will have direct access to both terminals. Handover is expected in the first half of 2020.”
And he offers more detail on the gateway’s cargo centre development. “Ground works are already underway in the area of our new Cargo City, which in the first phase will provide some 20,000m² of warehouse space, 36,000m² of cargo apron that will accommodate two Code F cargo aircraft at the same time, and a 10,000m² freight forwarder building with offices. The target date for handover is September 2019.”
The airport operator’s spending on the expansion of the gateway’s capacity has been considerable. “Altogether, Budapest Airport has invested more than 500 million Euros ($579 million) into airport infrastructure, ranging from the central terminal building called SkyCourt to the installation of a new instrument landing system of ILS CAT IIIB on our main landing directions,” Lammers concludes.
