Construction has begun on Cargo City at the Budapest airport, part of a larger €160m investment that began in 2016. Called BUD 2020, the investment program focused in its first phase on improvements and expansions to Franz Liszt airport's passenger component, resulting in the opening of a new pier. With the airport's capacity increased from 10 million to15 million people annually, and new connections to North America successfully launched over the summer, Cargo City is currently in the spotlight._x000D_ The thinking behind Cargo City is that it lies the 8-hour catchment area it lies in the middle of encompasses has tremendous industrial strength, including Poland, Germany, Italy and Balkan states. The €32.6m investment now underway will improve the airport's customer base, says the CEO of the airport Jost Lammers, who says that modern facilities attract new customer base by better accommodating their needs._x000D_ "We plan to provide the perfect environment for air cargo," said Rene Droese, the director of property and cargo at Budapest Airport during the ceremony that started construction work. "We are building on our earlier developments for passenger flights, and now we will continue this project in the logistics sector."_x000D_ "Right now more and more companies are building offices and logistic centers near us," says Jozsef Kossuth, senior Cargo Manager Budapest Airport. "We have flights going to New York, Beijing, Qatar, Japan and Korea. We can see that within the next 2-3years we may have to grow even more. Plans call for the creation of a 20,000 sqm cargo hall capable of accommodating the loading process of two Boeing 747's simultaneously. It will also enable the airport, located in the municipality of Vecses, to increase its storage space from127,000 to 200,000 tons with companies like Qatar Cargo, Turkish Cargo and Cargolux moving in._x000D_ "The economic crisis once stopped this investment," said Csaba Szlaho, the may or of Vecses. "Now nothing can seem to stop this. The municipality supports the project, as it brings revenues and generates new jobs. At the same time this development will mean we have to invest more in roads and logistics that will accommodate such traffic."Construction of Cargo City started in September 2018 and will become fully operational by the fourth quarter of next year. By that time, construction of an entirely new Terminal 3 building is expected to have gotten underway.