Situated in Central Europe, Hungary is one of the most easily accessible European destinations. Budapest Airport has a catchment area of 13 million people within a three-hour drive and it is easy to reach from the neighbouring countries of Austria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine.
Ideally located within two hours’ flying time of most major European destinations, Budapest Airport operates 34 airlines, serving 95 destinations in 40 countries. In addition to its strong European route network and flights to Beijing, in 2011, the airport introduced direct flights to the Middle East with Qatar Airways, to New York with American Airlines, to the Latvian capital of Riga with airBaltic, and jet2.com has started a route to Edinburgh, Scotland.
2013 host
Budapest Airport has participated in Routes events (the World Route Development Forum and Routes Europe) for more than a decade.
In May 2011, the facility was named the overall winner of the Routes Europe Airport Marketing Awards, highlighting the airport’s successful route expansion, and its ongoing development and investment programme: the recent opening of bud:skycourt has greatly increased the capacity of terminal 2 to 8.5 million passengers a year.
"We are delighted to have been selected to host Routes Europe 2013," said Budapest Airport CEO Jost Lammers. "We sincerely believe that Budapest is a worthy venue for such a prestigious and recognised industry event. The cooperation of Budapest Airport, the Hungarian National Tourist Office (with the Hungarian Convention Bureau) and Budapest Tourism will no doubt guarantee delegates’ satisfaction for both business and leisure purposes.
"Additionally, we are confident that our combined approach will contribute to ensuring Routes Europe will be organised in the most efficient and seamless manner possible. Hosting the event in Budapest will also provide a significant and welcome boost for Hungarian foreign relations across the important areas of aviation, business travel and tourism."
Perfect choice
As the largest city in Hungary, Budapest is the country’s political, cultural, commercial, industrial and transportation hub.
Created in 1873 with the unification of the twin cities of Buda and Pest, it is one of the youngest capital cities in Europe, although the history of the settlement dates back as far as 2000BC, which provides the city with a rich and varied culture.
"We are delighted to announce Budapest as the host city for our eighth Routes Europe event," said David Stroud, executive vice-president of airports at UBM Aviation Routes, organiser of the event. "It was an extremely difficult decision and competition was particularly fierce, but we felt that the excellent air accessibility throughout and beyond Europe, together with the city’s infrastructure and first-class event facilities, made it the perfect choice. We look forward to working with the Budapest team in taking the event to the next level."
