Landmark Steel Structure Built At Budapest Airport

The 240-ton steel structure that will serve Terminal 2 as a temporary baggage sorting hall from November has already been erected at Ferihegy. Also, builders are about to complete the transfer corridor running along the hall. The two structures are necessary since Budapest Airport (BA) is demolishing the parts of the current facilities to make way for its impressive new terminal building, the SkyCourt, which will link Terminals 2A and 2B.

There will be a total of six baggage belts twisting and turning along a total length of 600 meters within the 1580 square meter baggage sorting hall. This capacity will be much needed as, come November, all hold baggage and consignments checked in at Terminals 2B will get to the appropriate aircraft through this building.

The transfer corridor links Terminals 2A and 2B. The corridor, 300 meters long with an area of 851 square meters, could be used from November by passengers arriving from a Schengen country and continuing their journey to a non-Schengen destination, as well as passengers who transfer in Budapest en route to the Schengen zone from a non-Schengen country. The nearly three-meter-wide corridor is being equipped with air conditioners and heating. 

The six new baggage belts of the temporary baggage sorting facility will also run beneath the corridor. There will also be a line of windows on both sides, so transferring passengers will be able to see the hustle and bustle of the apron on one side and the construction works of Terminal 2 on the other.

The construction of the temporary baggage sorting facility and transfer corridor form part of the preparatory works for BA’s 65 billion HUF development program. The two structures are expected to be completed in mid-October. This is when the first phase of the development of Terminal 2 will commence, in which BA will demolish the middle section of the terminal to make way for the new terminal building called the SkyCourt.

“Construction works are under way in the heart of the airport, at the juncture of Terminals 2A and 2B, and during a very busy period,” said BA development director Stephan Schattney. “This is like performing a bypass operation whilst the patient is running. We have to switch the baggage system over from one facility to the other in such a way that passengers do not notice any of the complex processes that are going on.
 
Once the temporary facilities have been handed over, we will be able to concentrate on the most spectacular element of the airport development concept, the construction of the SkyCourt.”

Source: Budapest Airport