Representatives of Emirates said at the inauguration that the Budapest center is their second in Europe following Manchester in the UK, and the seventh globally. As in Manchester, the Budapest center is expected to serve nine countries, initially receiving only calls for reservations. The Budapest center opened with 30 employees, with a plan to raise the headcount to 300 within one year.

Parliamentary state secretary at Hungary’s foreign affaires and trade ministry, László Szabó, said at the opening that the Budapest center and the launch of a direct Budapest-Dubai flight the previous day showed that the government’s “strategy of Eastern Opening is starting to work.”