Due to the ever-increasing number of Chinese passengers coming to Hungary, Budapest Airport is putting extra effort into services offered to Chinese travelers in order to improve the comfort of their journey.
The number of passengers travelling by air between Hungary and China approached 200 000 people last year, and many more are expected this year with the launch of weekly three direct flights from Shanghai to Budapest with brand new Boeing B787-9 Dreamliners operated by Shanghai Airlines from 7th June.
To meet the demands of Chinese tourists, Budapest Airport has been implementing a series of developments. The airport manager, together with Heinemann Duty Free, is now introducing new payment methods – Alipay and Unionpay – preferred by Chinese tourists. These forms of payment are also to be introduced in other commercial units in the SkyCourt and the terminals.
For improved comfort and availability of information for Chinese travelers, Budapest Airport will also install Chinese signage in the terminals in the second half of 2019. The new signage will help tourists’ orientation at the airport, and it will also provide information about the most commonly used services such as VAT reclaim, lounges, meeting points, and bathrooms. In addition to this, Budapest Airport has recruited a Mandarin-speaking marketing specialist to provide terminal services for passengers from China.
As another service tailored to Chinese passengers, Budapest Airport has developed a Chinese version of the BUD application for smartphones, running since last July. This version of the application provides the most important flight and airport information in Chinese, and can be downloaded from both App Store and Google Play if the smartphone’s language is set to Chinese.