Budapest, 4 February 2015 Çelebi Ground Handling has opened a new business lounge for premium airline cardholders and VIP-travelers at the non-Schengen Terminal 2B and at the General Aviation Terminal of Budapest Airport. The Celebi Platinum Lounge at the top of the transit area of Terminal 2B offers unbeatable view of the airport apron and also quick and easy access to all departing flights.

Çelebi Ground Handling has held a special open day at Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport in order to mark the opening of the reconstructed Celebi Platinum Lounge at Terminal 2B. With this job completed all special VIP-areas of Çelebi Ground Handling, located a Terminal 2A and 2B and at the General Aviation Terminal will have the same high level interior design and will provide extra comfort for passengers using them. Çelebi Ground Handling has spent 250.000 Euros for refurbishing just the 2B Celebi Platinum Lounge in order to provide world-class comfort for airline premium card holders and other VIP-travelers.

Çelebi Ground Handling has signed a five year long lease agreement with Budapest Airport about providing lounge and ground handling services at the General Aviation Terminal last year. In accordance with the agreement Budapest Airport has completely refurbished the building and up-graded all areas for daily operations (e.g. security, border control and customs) at the General Aviation Terminal.  Çelebi Ground Handling has done in its turn a full interior re-design and up-grade of the lounge areas. The GAT building serves the exclusive travel needs of passengers of business jets and other smaller private aircraft including world-famous moviestars, high-ranking diplomats, business people and even Formula-1 drivers and their teams. Among the travelers of the General Aviation Terminal you could meet celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt when they were shooting a film in Budapest, F-1 drivers like Jenson Button or Kimi Raikönnen.

The Çelebi Open Day at Budapest Airport was attended by His Excellency Sakir Fakili, the Ambassador of Turkey in Budapest and Mr. Çan Çelebioglu-Chairman & Shareholder, Mr. Onno Boots- CEO, Çelebi Aviation Holding, Mr. Atilla Korkmazoğlu-President Ground Handling & Cargo (EMEA) and many other important Turkish companies operating in Hungary. At the opening ceremony Mr. Onno Boots CEO has said:” The investment in the new lounge confirms Çelebi's long term commitment to the airport and re affirms its focus on continuously enhancing services through a total quality approach that is strongly embedded in the Çelebi culture.”

“We are delighted to see the opening of the Celebi Platinum Lounge and the newly refurbished  General Aviation Terminal Lounge done by one of our largest airport partners Çelebi Ground Handling.” said René Droese, Property Director of Budapest Airport. He added: “We share the same business rule with Çelebi in passenger service that ‘only excellent is acceptable’ – since we want to provide exceptional travel experience to all our passengers from low-cost customers to leading world business people who travel with their own business jets via Budapest. Budapest Airport wishes every success to Çelebi Ground Handling with the operation of their new GAT and Celebi Platinum Lounge.”

Budapest Airport is the best airport in Eastern Europe, as recognized by Skytrax in 2014 based on passenger ratings. Budapest Airport Plc., the operator of Ferenc Liszt International Airport is owned by a consortium of German (KfW IPEX-Bank 5%) Canadian (Caisse de depôt et placement de Québec 20.167%) and Singaporean (Malton Investments Pte Ltd. 22.167%) investors led by AviAlliance GmbH (52.666%). The terminals of the airport were home to 39 airlines, which transported 9.15 million passengers to 88 airports in 74 cities in 35 countries in 2014.