Budapest Airport in good shape at Routes Europe 2012

Monday 21st May 2012

The Budapest Airport marketing and route development team led by Aviation Director Kam Jandu is participating at the seventh annual Routes Europe forum from 20 - 22 May 2012 in Tallinn, Estonia. The team joins the unique face-to-face airport-to-airline meetings at the city's Radisson Blu Hotel Olümpia, and will be promoting its special pricing and incentives package, developed to encourage new airline partners to Budapest Airport, which was last year's overall winner of the Routes Airport Marketing Award.

"We value the Routes Europe format hugely as it provides terrific opportunities to meet with the airline community as we look to shape the new face of Hungarian aviation," said Kam Jandu. "The void left by Malév, clearly offers business opportunities for carriers both flying into and establishing bases at Budapest."

Budapest Airport, the Hungarian National Tourist Office (together with the Hungarian Convention Bureau) and Budapest Tourism will host next year's Routes Europe and they are working together to give delegates an occasion to remember next year. The event will be staged at the SYMA Sport and Event Center in Budapest city during 12-14 May.

The airport has made a strong and quick recovery from the unfortunate bankruptcy of flag carrier Malév, in February. "New and existing airlines, along with partners have pulled together in an impressive show of solidarity and optimism. As a result, traffic is only 11% down on last summer," said Aviation Director Kam Jandu. Some 80% of the point to point traffic delivered by Malev was recovered within days, he noted.

"We remain committed to being the best and leading airport in the Central/Eastern European region and despite the loss of a major airline, it is pleasing to confirm that our summer 2012 programme is being operated by 34 airlines (compared with 33 last year), serving 88 destinations." Having the chance to showcase the airport and the city of Budapest to leading airlines and airports at Routes Europe 2013 is a terrific opportunity for us," he added.

Budapest Airport continues to support new airlines with attractive incentive schemes, market research from a dedicated route development department, promotions on the bud.hu website and reduced or complimentary advertising at the airport.

Six new airlines, 13 destinations added:

To date this year, Budapest Airport has welcomed six new airlines and 13 new destinations have been added to the Budapest route map. A total 38 of the 58 destinations operated by Malev have been replaced.

Highlights include:

• Wizz Air bases sixth aircraft at BUD for new flights to Dortmund in Germany
• Aegean Airlines, a new airline from Athens
• Jet2.com adds twice-weekly services to Leeds
• airBaltic commences services to Riga
• Transavia launched flights to Amsterdam
• Blue1 launches twice weekly flights to Helsinki in Finland from the beginning of June
• Brit Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air France, starts services to Lyon Saint Exupéry from 19 June.
• Tarom ups its Bucharest frequency to three times daily
• TAP has increased frequency to Lisbon from seven to eight flights per week.

Ryanair returns to Budapest - with 30 new routes:

In February, Ryanair announced its return to Budapest Airport and within months it positioned five aircraft at the airport, launching a total of 30 new routes to destinations across Europe, including, Birmingham, Bologna, Bristol, Lubeck, Malaga, Paphos, Alicante, Venice and Tampere. Last week Dusseldorf-Weeze Germany and Billund in Denmark joined the network. Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair, described the re-launch of Ryanair's services from Budapest Airport as: "Probably the most successful start-up ever for Ryanair." In its first six weeks at Budapest, the airline flew more than 100,000 passengers through the airport.

Budapest - strong tourism appeal:

Budapest city is a vibrant year-round, short break destination which boasts a highly developed infrastructure for conference and incentive travel. Combined with the city's ease of access (within two hours' flying time to almost all major European destinations) and its genuine hospitality, visitors can be sure of a warm welcome.

It is also popular on the European short break map for its culture, museums, the River Danube which flows across 10 countries, its spas and thermal waters, Budapest boasts a range of international gourmet restaurants. Budapest nightlife is vibrant with a variety of pubs, bars and clubs accessible in a safe city environment.

Budapest Airport has been a participant at the Routes events (the World Route Development Forum and Routes Europe) for more than a decade.

About Budapest Airport:Budapest Airport Zrt. operates Budapest Airport. This is privately owned with German company HOCHTIEF AirPort, one of the world's biggest independent airport managers holding a 49.67% stake, together with a further four financial investors: Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Montreal holding a 18.17% stake; Malton Investment Pte Ltd. holding a 18.17% stake; Aero Investment S.á.r.l. holding a 10% stake and KfW IPEX-Bank, Frankfurt holding a 4% stake.

Budapest Airport aims to be best airport in the Central and Eastern European region and have been recognised for their development projects, customer services approach and marketing activities

www.bud.hu