Budapest Airport continues to go from strength to strength and chief commercial officer Kam Jandu says the next target is a direct route to the US. He explains the gateway has been in talks at the 20th World Routes Development Forum with three US carriers – Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines.
“Budapest is the biggest EU capital country currently not served and without a direct flight to New York. We will see what happens, but a flight out west to the US is our aim,” Jandu explained.
Other long-haul routes are also on the agenda though, and the ambitious hub has set its sights on routes to Australia and Asia in the future. Next month on October 27th, Emirates Airline will launch a daily service from Budapest to Dubai, joining Middle East services to Doha in Qatar by Qatar Airways.
Jandu says Budapest has recently been classed as the most popular short-term visitor city by Trip Advisor, and tourism has grown by eight to nine per cent. “Budapest is getting more and more popular as it is outside the Euro, and it is cheap. Trips down the River Danube are also popular,” Jandu says.
Growth in Hungary is strong and it has one of the highest GDP growth rates in Europe. The airport’s current capacity is 13mppa, and year-on-year growth in passenger traffic stands at 7.5%, and it is set to break the nine million figure by the end of 2014. This, Jandu says, has been fuelled by Wizz Air, Norwegian and Vueling, and other of the 35 carriers that operate out of Budapest, and this is despite there now being no national airline in Hungary.
As for airport infrastructure, development of a hotel, probably a 3-plus star facility with around 250 rooms is set to take place by 2016. Jandu explains: “A hotel is back on the table, and a tender will go out for that soon, the development of a hotel has been put back after. It will probably be something like a Courtyard by Marriott or something similar, with an investment of €20 million.”
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