Budapest Airport welcomes Wizz Air’s five millionth passenger.

Thursday 24th February, 2011

Budapest Airport today welcomed the five millionth passenger to fly with Hungarian-based low cost carrier Wizz Air. The lucky traveller arrived on the morning flight from Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and was greeted by Balázs Varró, Head of Communications for Wizz Air and Patrick Bohl, Head of Airline Development & Strategy for Budapest Airport in Terminal 1, the airport’s dedicated low cost carrier terminal. Celebrations marking the event took place in the Illy café where the Wizz Air customer, Mr Gergely Tatár, was presented with a bottle of champagne, and the gift of a Wizz Air flight voucher enabling him to travel within a year, on any 12 routes provided by the airline from Budapest.

“Today marks a significant date for Wizz Air and we are delighted to share the celebrations in welcoming this special passenger. Wizz Air currently serves over 1.1 million passengers per year at Budapest Airport, Terminal 1 and their continued growth clearly demonstrates just how important low cost carriers are to the European travel market. Budapest Airport remains committed to supporting passengers and airlines in the low cost sector and this great milestone for Wizz Air is a recognition of this commitment,” commented Bohl.

Wizz Air is the largest central and eastern European low cost carrier and started flights from Budapest in 2004, its first year of operations. Since then the airline has increased Budapest passenger numbers five fold, with over 1.1 million passengers travelling in and out of the airport in 2010. “We have real reason to celebrate,” says Varró of Wizz Air: “Budapest is one of our most important base airports, so we’re thrilled our five millionth passenger arrived into Budapest airport."

About Budapest Airport:

During 2010 Budapest Airport handled almost 8.2 million passengers through scheduled, charter and general aviation services. Budapest Airport Zrt. owns and operates Ferihegy Airport. This is a public private partnership with the Hungarian State holding 25% and the remaining 75 percent owned by German company HOCHTIEF AirPort, one of the world’s biggest independent airport managers, together with a further four financial investors: Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Montreal; GIC Special Investments, Singapore; and KfW IPEX-Bank, Frankfurt. In July 2008, Aero Investment S.á.r.l. became a new shareholder.

Through its BUD Future project Budapest Airport aims to be the aviation hub of the CEE region.
Leading projects include:

SkyCourt - a new centrally located building which, when open in March 2011, will link the existing terminals 2a and 2b. SkyCourt will double the commercial area of the terminals and provide a wide range of retail outlets, international brands and an improved food and beverage offering. The contemporary glass structure will also offer an impressive view of the apron and aims to provide passengers with a unique travel experience.

Cargo City – New on-airport cargo facilities will feature 140.000sqm of cargo and logistics terminals designed for airlines, handlers and integrators.

Budapest Airport incorporates two terminals. Terminal 1 is a dedicated low cost carrier terminal and Terminal 2 services the traditional carriers. The airport is also the base for Malev, Hungary’s national airline and part of the One World alliance and is home to a further 32 airlines, serving over 92 destinations which represents 40 countries worldwide.

About Wizz Air:

Wizz Air carried 9.8 million passengers in the last 12 months. The airline's fleet currently consists of 34 Airbus A320 aircraft operating from 12 bases in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. The 13th base in Belgrade, Serbia and the 14th in Vilnius, Lithuania will commence in Spring 2011.

www.bud.hu