BUDAPEST
 

Until Malev went bust at the start of 2012, Budapest was using both terminals 1 and 2. Two months later the airport closed T1 and all airlines moved to T2 - the reason given was a decline in traffic from Malev's collapse. T1 was essentially a low cost terminal while T2 was aimed at full service airlines

Looking at traffic data over the last few years, it seems passenger traffic in the last few years has seen significant growth at Budapest. 2011 saw about 9m pax while 2016 saw over 11m pax.

Is T2 near its capacity limits or does it have plenty more space? I went through BUD as a passenger in late 2015 - it seemed pretty full. I'm aware a new pier is being built but it seemed like T2 was a little pushed to manage the peak passenger flow.
Could we at some point see T1 being reopened ?

The airport declared already that T1 won't ever be opened again as it's in an art relic status. T1 apron is used only by GAT, cargo, police and the odd military charters. Besides it lacks capacity to serve any of the major airlines of the airport (Wizz, Ryanair or LH). Maybe Easy or Norwegian but then what would be the rationale behind? It wouldn't free up significant space at T2. Airport hotel and the new pier are already under construction (one of the runways is being redone as well), another pier can be built quite quickly if needed and T2C (or T3 if you wish) can be build too as the original T2 plan was made to accomodate 3 adjacent terminal buildings.

The current capacity is 12 million pax/years which will be raised to 15-16 million with the ongoing works and to 20 million by 2024. A new FIDS is being planned, construction of another 1000 car parking slots is underway (raising the capacity to 4700, the Airport Skanzen is relocated to accomodate the new parking lot), cargo city will be built next to T2 and two package/parcel logistic centers will be completed soon at T1 (for TNT and DHL besides the new DHL center built 2-3 years ago). All ILSs were rebuilt last year, a new taxiway (F) was constructed as well. The airport operator is running with the ball.