Budapest Airport Zrt. appoints new CEO

Budapest Airport Zrt. appoints new CEO

Management change at Budapest Airport: Chris Dinsdale is taking over from Dr. Rolf Schnitzler as the CEO of Budapest Airport Zrt. from the end of March. Chris Dinsdale is a highly experienced airport manager for this, who has in-depth knowledge of Budapest Airport.

Chris Dinsdale has been CFO and deputy CEO of Budapest Airport since 2015. He was responsible not only for finance, but also the procurement, legal and IT departments of Budapest Airport, and served as the managing director of AFS Ltd., Budapest Airport's aviation fuel subsidiary. He therefore has profound and in-depth knowledge of the airport and its operations. Mr. Dinsdale is thus the right person to prepare the airport for the restart of air traffic and a return to growth, as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic allows. Before his roles at the airport, Chris Dinsdale served as CFO at Wildhorse Energy and as director at KPMG Hungary.

Dr. Rolf Schnitzler filled the position of CEO at the airport operator from August 2019. His appointment was for a temporary period. Under his management, as a result of hard work over the past months, the company implemented investments of nearly 60 billion HUF, successfully managed the industry crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and prepared for the re-start of traffic in the future.

Gerhard Schroeder, chairman of the Board of Directors of Budapest Airport Zrt. said: “We thank Dr. Rolf Schnitzler for all his efforts in these difficult times. Thanks to the joint work of Dr. Rolf Schnitzler and Chris Dinsdale, Budapest Airport mastered the aviation crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic exceptionally well. With the growing number of vaccinations globally, the aviation industry is at the turning point of the crisis. From now on, crisis management is expected to be replaced by operational recovery management and a return to growth, which Budapest Airport will implement under the leadership of Chris Dinsdale.

The Runway Run, Budapest Airport’s charity running race, started off for the tenth time on Saturday. The airport operator will again donate proceeds from the invitation-only race, which will amount to several million forints, to charity this year.