BUDAPEST AIRPORT HOLDS TOPPING OUT CEREMONY FOR NEW PIER B

Budapest Airport has held the topping out ceremomy for its new Pier B, just eight months after construction commenced.

If all goes to plan, the new pier will be completed by the second half of 2018 and enhance the airport's capacity by six million passengers per annum.

Fully-financed by the Hungarian gateway, the project will increase the passenger area of Terminal 2B, the non-Schengen terminal, by more than 10,000m². 

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With ten new boarding bridges and the architectural solutions of the building, the 220m long pier will offer 27 different boarding options in total, in line with different airline needs (via contact gates, bussing, or walk-on boarding).

According to the airport, the pier, which is connected to Terminal 2B, harmonises with the architecture of both SkyCourt and T2B.

The airport's chief technical officer, Stephan Schattney, enthuses “I am very glad that we have kept to the project milestones so far. 

"It is important that we can now start to close the building with roof and facades. This allows us to continue with the interior finishes during the winter season. 

"We are now targeting late spring for completion of the building shell. After testing and commissioning of Pier B we hope to be ready to serve passengers by late summer 2018. 

"We are happy to receive a number of new long-haul flights, such as the New York and Chicago routes by LOT Polish Airlines and the Philadelphia flight by American Airlines, and we wish to provide the best environment possible to our new passengers.”

László Szalados, country manager for construction firm, KÉSZ Group, notes: “We are not only happy but also quite proud to see that after the impressive SkyCourt building Budapest Airport and the KÉSZ Group are now further developing the main gateway to Hungary. 

"Construction has progressed according to schedule; the new pier is growing at the airport minute-by-minute.”

The construction of the pier connected to Terminal 2B is one of the key components of Budapest’s five-year, Ђ160 million airport development project called BUD 2020. 

Completely self-financed by the airport operator, to be completed by the end of 2020, the total cost of construction of Pier B is over Ђ25 million.