Budapest Ferihegy Airport has recently opened an impressive passenger hall between Terminal 2A and 2B. It is something truly attractive with an inner space that seems to be even bigger than it actually is… and it is huge by any measure. The architects have really excelled with this steel and glass building which embraces you with light whether it is day or night. You can eat and shop or just sit around while you wait for your flight.
A cute idea picked right from Las Vegas casinos… when you enter the SkyCourt after security control, you must walk through the booze store to reach the rest of the facility. The stores are not particularly impressive though, they are the usual collection of brand names selling stuff at exorbitant prices. But this is not the biggest problem of SkyCourt.
Its biggest problem is the security check point.
I do not know what the experts had in mind when they allocated the ridiculously cramped area for the security lanes… may be they wanted to maximize the commercial space and cut the rest just a little too small. This will be a killer when traffic picks up. Last night there were only about 20 of us and with two lanes operating, we stood in line for almost 5 minutes!
Not only is the total space far too small, the individual lanes and the transport belts are also far too short. At security check points with more sensible dimensions, you have a long track of rollers on which to deposit your plastic trays into which you load the items to be x-rayed. Typically, in any given lane 7-8 people can work on getting their mobile phones, computers and trouser belts onto the conveyor… in Budapest there is space only for a single individual! OK, you might squeeze in 2 but that is the max. On the other side of the metal detector you face the same problem again. Normally you have space for 7-8 people to gather their gear, here you have the place all to yourself. No wonder 20 people can appear as a crowd there!
Another curious (and horribly expensive!) feature of the conveyor system in Budapest is that the trays do not slide out from the x-ray machine under the force of gravity. No sir, there you have sticky plastic ropes in the sides of the conveyor and these pull the trays forward. But this is not the coolest feature. That comes in the form of an additional security guy whose job it is to start and stop the trays so that you may pick up your items before the tray dips out of sight to return to the incoming side. Considering that this guy is being paid from the fees slapped on my ticket by the airport, I would rather see BUD Airport use gravity to move the trays and a few circulating helpers to load them onto the return path… A dedicated tray controller is an expensive overkill.
Why am I complaining about this? Simple. No matter how impressive the SkyCourt is and how pleasant it is once you are inside, if there will be miles long lines at security, that is what passengers will remember and not what SkyCourt has to offer. Now there is still time for the airport to remedy this monumental screw-up although this will probably not be easy… there are what appeared to be solid walls all around the place. But something will have to be done and the sooner the better otherwise there will be delays simply because passengers will have to spend unduly long minute standing in line to be checked.
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