World Airport Awards is one of the most prestigious aviation accolades. The Skytrax Award is decided every year – independently of airports – based on a satisfaction survey completed by tens of thousands of passengers, who evaluate airport services, including the check-in procedure, the quality of passenger services and safety levels.

Edward Plaisted, CEO, Skytrax said: “With many airports around the world having seen a 70-80% drop in passenger numbers during our survey period, we considered that our 2021 awards should reflect these conditions, and whilst many customers voted for their favourite airport without visiting there in the last year, we had a very large survey response for airports where users have been travelling during COVID-19.”

Chris Dinsdale, CEO, Budapest Airport said: “It is a great honour that Budapest Airport became the best airport in Eastern Europe for the eighth time in a row, based on the votes of the passengers. Especially in the light of the fact that the last 18 months has been the most challenging period for the aviation industry, requiring extra effort from everyone. This year’s award is therefore of special importance for us, since passengers did not only recognise the general performance of the airport, but our response to the pandemic as well.”

Budapest Airport aims to provide the safest possible environment and excellent services for its passengers. Thanks to its health protection measures, in line with international protocols, the airport operator is constantly working to ensure a risk-free stay at the airport for passengers.

In addition, continuously improving the passenger experience and the quality of airport services is a top priority for both the owners and the management of Budapest Airport. To this end, investments worth 167 million EUR have been carried out at the airport over the past two years, half of which were implemented last year, during the pandemic. Although Budapest Airport closed 2020 with its largest ever loss of €110 million, infrastructural, capacity and digital expansion investments related to the development of the airport remained constant. Despite the crisis affecting the industry, the company completed 95% of the development projects planned in 2019; moreover, the airport operator brought forward the completion of several development or renovation projects to the period characterised by low passenger numbers.

Budapest Airport won several awards over the past months in reputation management and employer branding. The first place in the “Reputation and brand management” category of the IPRA Golden World Awards – often referred to as the Oscars of the PR profession – recognised the joint reputation management activities of Budapest Airport and the Lounge Group during the first wave of the coronavirus. The airport received another prestigious PR accolade recently, when the cooperation of Budapest Airport and the PR division of the Lounge Group won an international reputation management award at the 2020 Eventiada IPRA Golden World Awards. According to the results of the Randstad Employer Brand Research 2021, the most comprehensive independent employer brand research project in the world carried out in 34 countries, Budapest Airport is the most attractive employer in the Hungarian service sector.