István Szabó took up his position as Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH on 15 September 2025. The FBB Supervisory Board had appointed István Szabó as the new Managing Director for BER Operations at its meeting on 7 May 2025. He thus complements the management of FBB under the chairmanship of Aletta von Massenbach.
Prior to joining FBB, he served as Acting COO and Chief Passenger Officer at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport and brings a wealth of experience in airport operations and innovation. Thanks to his contribution, Budapest Airport was twice named the best airport in Europe in the “15 to 25 million passengers per year” category in the ACI Airport Service Quality Ranking in 2023 and 2025.
A native of Hungary, Szabó began his career in 2005 as Managing Director of the security service provider I-SEC Hungary and speaks fluent German and English. From 2016 to 2020, he was responsible for airport security at Budapest Airport as Chief Security Officer. In the years since 2020, in particular, as Chief Passenger Officer and Acting COO, he was jointly responsible for quality initiatives at the airport such as Remote City Check-in and the establishment of Care Zones for passengers.
István Szabó studied law and political science in Budapest, is a trained European Aviation Security Manager, a Certified Cyber Security Expert and has completed the IATA Security Management Systems Programme.
