The new baggage sorting system in operation at Budapest Airport – Video

The baggage system at Ferenc Liszt International Airport awaits passengers’ return with state-of-the-art screening equipment and increased capacity. The new baggage sorting hall was completed in the summer, and then, utilizing the period of low traffic, testing was completed on all security screening devices, functions safeguarding continuous operation and the new baggage belts. Budapest Airport demonstrates in a video the route that bags take, from check-in to the new sorting facility.

The new, approximately 2000 square meter building constructed on the airside, in front of the central hall of Terminal 2, increases the capacities of the baggage sorting facility operating underneath the passenger circulation areas of the SkyCourt by 50%. Although the European Union extended the deadline for its introduction by 1 year due to the coronavirus pandemic, in parallel with the construction of the new hall, Budapest Airport replaced the screening machines of the baggage system with the best equipment currently available, devices compliant with baggage screening standard 3, pursuant to EU regulations.

The new security screening machines of the baggage system have been operating live since September; these high-capacity devices use computer tomography (CT) technology, and are able to provide a three-dimensional image of the contents of screened bags, thus enabling more precise security screening.

During the expansion of the baggage system, a total of 301 new system components were incorporated, which increased the route that bags take from check-in to the sorting facility by 875 meters, to more than 2.8 kilometers. 

72 hours of trial operation, supervised by airside operations and passenger screening specialists, technical experts and the representatives of the construction companies, were completed during the past days, to ensure that the new system should operate seamlessly, even at full capacity. The tests were carried out without passengers noticing anything; trial operation was completed according to a carefully compiled protocol, in three days, with no stoppages. Bags of all sizes and surface structures reach their intended destinations via the system, without any problems.