Hungary’s Budapest Airport has announced on Thursday it has concluded the sale of Budapest Airport Handling Kft (BAH) to Turkey’s Celebi Ground Handling Inc. Turkey’s first privately owned ground handling company was established in 1958 in Ankara’s Esenboga airport. Celebi, which was floated on the Istambul stock market in 1996, has a market share of 62%. It posted revenues of $160 million in 2005. Celebi provides ground handling services for Italy’s Alitalia, the Czech Airlines, Spanish Iberia, Belgium’s SN Brussels, KLM of the Netherlands and SkyEurope, which is one of its newest clients. Upon the completion of the transaction, Celebi will take over every operation of BAH, its entire infrastructure and its staff of about 500 people.

The parties agreed that the present collective contract of BAH’s payroll will remain in force until 11 September 2008. BAH employees will also receive a success bonus worth three months’ average pay following the deal. The sale of BAH could be of great importance for Budapest Airport, since it will allow the company to focus more on the operation of the Ferihegy airport as its core business, thus improve its efficiency. The quality and competitiveness of ground handling is also likely to improve now that an internationally experienced company takes over. (portfolio.hu)