Budapest Airport Highly Commended at 2012 World Routes Awards.

Wednesday 3rd October 2012

Budapest Airport was highly commended as one of the top three airports in Europe last night in the prestigious World Routes Awards, voted for exclusively by airline judges*.

"To win such recognition on the world stage after experiencing a difficult year with the loss of Malév is especially pleasing for us," noted Patrick Bohl, Budapest's Head of Route Development. So far this year, Budapest Airport has welcomed seven new airlines and 13 new destinations have been added to the Hungarian capital's route map.

Budapest Airport was placed ahead of Munich and Amsterdam Schiphol, which together with Birmingham, Rome Fiumicino and Athens International Airports were all shortlisted in the Europe over four million passengers a year category. Overall winner was Brussels Airport. Hamburg Airport was also highly commended.

The event took place at the new Yas Marina Circuit, home of the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix racing circuit, as over 2,750 industry delegates from more than 80 countries, gathered for the 18th World Route Development Forum networking event. The Routes Awards are unique because they are voted for exclusively by the airline network planning community, from written submissions. They recognise excellence in air service development by airports worldwide.

Budapest Airport has regularly featured in the roll call of winning or highly commended airports, last year scooping the title as overall winner of the Routes Airport Marketing Award. The airport has been a participant at the Routes events (the World Route Development Forum and Routes Europe) for more than a decade. Budapest Airport, the Hungarian National Tourist Office (together with the Hungarian Convention Bureau) and Budapest Tourism will proudly host next year's Routes Europe, working together to give delegates an occasion to remember. The event will be staged at the SYMA Sport and Event Center in Budapest city during 12-14 May 2013.

Kam Jandu, Director of Aviation for Budapest Airport said: "For three consecutive years now, Budapest Airport has been rewarded for its outstanding marketing efforts elevating us on to the agenda of many airlines who otherwise would not realise the opportunity which exists in the CEE region. We are delighted with this commendation and thank the voting airlines for their recognition, we promise to keep up the good work."

David Stroud, Executive Vice President of Routes said "We would like congratulate this year's winners and highly commended airports, year on year we are impressed by the calibre of the submissions that are supplied to us, proving the importance of airline-airport relationships."

*This year's judges were John Kirby, Senior Director, International for Southwest Airlines; Rick Wagstaffe, Vice President Procurement & Logistics for Emirates; Alan McIntyre, Head of Network and Schedule Development for easyJet; Imed Ben Abdallah, Head of Network Planning for Etihad Airways; Sabine Reim, Network Development Manager for British Airways; Germal Singh Khera, Senior Vice President International Affairs for Malaysia Airlines; Mauricio Emboaba Moreira, Senior Strategic Advisor for Gol Transportes Aereos and John Grant, Executive Vice President of OAG.

• 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 service approach and marketing activities.

www.bud.hu