Budapest Airport (BUD) claims to have ‘elevated’ its retail proposition with the arrival of new brands to its commercial offer following this year’s tender for units in its flagship SkyCourt shopping centre in Terminal 2B.

Just opened are children’s fashion store, Memories of Hungary ‘Lovely You’, the first in the market, and ‘Hard Rock’ – Hungary’s second-only self-operated unit.

Opening this month are: fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss [an enlargement of an existing unit], both operated by MDF (a subsidiary of Heinemann Duty Free), and FloCafé, operated by SSP in T2B landside [an expansion of the F&B unit that is expected to generate 50,000 more transactions].

Next year will see the arrival of Spanish fashion brand Desigual, operated by Mágint Pannónia, and Italian fashion brand 7camicie, operated by Memories of Hungary [both opening May]; six Relay-branded news and books units from Lapker, a subsidiary of Lagardére Travel Retail; jewellery house Frey Wille which has an extended contract for a jewellery island in central SkyCourt; and casual dining outlet O’Leary’s sports bar, operated by SSP from mid-2016.

RETAIL REVENUE +20% YOY

BUD welcomed 9.1m passengers in 2014 while monthly traffic growth in 2015 to end-November has exceeded +10% YoY, with retail outperforming this. Chief Commercial Officer at BUD, Kam Jandu, says: “With year-on-year retail revenue increased by more than +20%, it is an ideal time for potential new commercial partners to join Budapest Airport.

“We’re all really looking forward to another great year of both record-breaking passenger growth and superb trading results in 2016, with a little help from our new commercial partner friends.”

Budapest Airport Zrt is the operator of Budapest Airport. It is owned by an international consortium of investors, led by the privately-owned German company AviAlliance (52.66%), Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (20.17%), Malton Investment (22.17%) and KfW IPEX-Bank (5%).