Budapest Airport temporarily closes Terminal 1, postpones Cargo City investment
Terminal 1 at the Liszt Ferenc International Airport will be closed down only temprorarily, airport operator says.
Liszt Ferenc International Airport Operator Budapest Airport said Wednesday it will temporarily close Terminal 1 of the airport and postpone the planned construction of the air cargo reloading center Cargo City following the grounding of national carrier Malév.
Budapest Airport now expects to start the Cargo City project in two years from now, it said in a statement.
At the same time they plan to carry on with other planned development projects. These include the construction of an airport hotel with the involvement of an outside investor next door to Terminal 2 "if administrative obstacles of the investment could be eliminated in the near future".
The company said it was compelled to take immediate steps to keep it operational. It decided on the measures after a review of the 2012 business plan, passenger projections and the financial resources available after the grounding of Malév at the beginning of February.
This year's plans had to be amended because of Malév's grounding. Malév used the newer Terminal 2 and its demise released considerable reserve capacity at Terminal 2. Meanwhile Terminal 1, which serves mainly low-fare airlines, is close to the limits of its passenger service capacity during peak hours. This is why the idea of temporarily moving all flights to the more spacious Terminal 2 has been suggested, which Budapest Airport announced at a meeting attended by all of its airport partners on Tuesday.
Since Malév was grounded, Budapest Airport has been continuously working to make up for the losses in all areas, the statement said. Even though several new airlines have launched services from Budapest and airlines already operating from here have announced new flights or capacity increases, further adjustments are necessary to set the company back on its feet, such as postponing the Cargo City project, Budapest Airport said.
At the real estate fair Expo Real in Munich in October 2011 Budapest Airport said it planned to start construction of 11,000sqm of warehouse space and 4,500sqm of office space as part of phase one – costing €14 million according to earlier information – of the Cargo City project this spring. Other plans included the establishment of a hotel directly connected to Terminal 2B, to be built by a professional real estate developer and operated by an international hotel chain, and an office park next to Terminal 2.
Budapest Airport said in October that investment plans in and around the airport in the next 15 years are of a potential value of €300 million.
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