Malév Hungarian Airlines

Malév Hungarian Airlines
IATA MA	ICAO MAH	Callsign MALEV
Founded		1946 (as Hungarian-Soviet Civil Air Transport Joint Stock Company)
Hubs		Budapest Ferihegy International Airport
Frequent flyer program		Duna Club
Alliance		Oneworld
Fleet size		28
Destinations		58
Headquarters		Budapest, Hungary
Key people		Péter Leonov (CEO)
Website: http://www.malev.hu

Malév Hungarian Airlines, (Malév is an acronym of the Hungarian Magyar Légiközlekedési Vállalat), is the national airline of Hungary, based at Budapest. It is the principal Hungarian airline and flies to 50 cities in 34 countries worldwide. Its main base is Budapest Ferihegy International Airport. Malév has been a member of the Oneworld alliance since April 2007.^[1] Malév - the accent indicates that the E is long, and the first syllable is always stressed in Hungarian, so the name is pronounced MAH-layv.

History

Malév's origins are somewhat convoluted. Companies like Aero Rt. (founded 1910), Magyar Æeroforgalmi Rt. (MAEFORT) and Magyar Légiforgalmi Rt. (Malert) were spiritual forebears, but the devastation of World War II temporarily suspended all Hungarian civil aviation and these companies with it. The company's official founding date was March 29, 1946, when the Hungarian-Soviet Civil Air Transport Joint Stock Company (Magyar-Szovjet Légiforgalmi Rt. aka Maszovlet) was formed. The initial fleet consisted of 21-seat Li-2 passenger aircraft (the Soviet-licensed DC-3) and 3-seat Po-2 "taxis", used for precision air mail: sacks of mail were dropped from the aircraft when flying over its destination. In 1950, Malév's operating base moved from Budaörs to the newly opened airport at Ferihegy, where it has remained.

Malév Boeing 737-700 (HA-LOB)

Another view of Malév Boeing 737-700 (HA-LOB)

On November 25, 1956, Hungary purchased all the Soviet shares of Maszovlet, and Malév was born. Operations gradually expanded, with flights extending to nearby countries and, following the 1968 purchase of jet-propelled Tupolev Tu-134s from the Soviet Union, across Europe and the Middle East. Even before the political changes of 1989 and the arrival of democracy, Malév had begun phasing out its Soviet-era planes with the introduction of the first western aircraft, a Boeing 737-200 on November 18, 1988. The last Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft was withdrawn from service in 2001. In 2003, Malév began replacing its Boeing 737 Classic aircraft with 737 Next-Generation planes. It now runs a fleet of 18 Boeings Boeing 737s and one Boeing 767-300ER for long-haul flights, and several Fokker 70s and Canadair CRJ-200s for short-haul routes. Since 1999, the Hungarian state property agency ÁPV Rt. (Állami Privatizációs és Vagyonkezelõ Rt.) has owned 99.5% of Malév shares. The other 0.5% are in the hands of small shareholders. ÁPV Rt has repeatedly tried to privatise Malév - finally selling it to AirBridge Zrt, one of whose stockholders is Boris Abramovich who backs KrasAir and AiRUnion. AirBridge acquired 99.9% of the airline in February 2007. It has 2,975 employees (at March 2007).^[1] Despite Czech Airlines' offer to sponsor Malév as an associate member of the SkyTeam alliance, and Malév's codeshare agreements with several SkyTeam carriers, the airline chose to join Oneworld as a full member. Malév became a fully-fledged member of Oneworld on March 29, 2007. On July 12, 2007 Lloyd Paxton was appointed CEO of Malev. Paxton replaced János Gönci, who will remain on the board of directors as an adviser. Mr Paxton was with British Airways for over 35 years and most recently was with Air Astana. He had been tasked with making Malev profitable within two years, although AirBridge's CEO, Boris Abramovich, said at a recent press conference that he wanted Malev to enter profit within the next year. Mr Paxton was the first Malev CEO to come from the airline industry. On September 14, 2007 Lloyd Paxton resigned as CEO of Malév. The new CEO is Péter Leonov.^[2]

Destinations

Further information: Malév Hungarian Airlines destinations

Malév Hungarian Airlines mainly flies to destinations in Europe, but operates some flights to Asia, Africa and North America. The airline also flies to several charter destinations. On October 29, Malev announced the suspension of its trans-Atlantic routes for the winter season. Services on the Budapest-Toronto and Budapest-New York JFK routes were suspended in mid-November and will resume in March 2008. Passenger loads on these routes is condiderably lower in winter, making them uneconomical to operate. Malev will wet-lease its Boeing 767-200ER to Oman Air until late March 2008, which will also help Malev earn revenue.^[3]

Fleet

The Malév fleet includes the following aircraft as of September 2007:^[4][5]

The average age of Malev's fleet is 4.6 years, making it one of the youngest fleet in Europe. Malev began leasing the first of three Boeing 767-300ERs in early 2007, with the intention of adding one aircraft per year, with the last joining the fleet in 2009. These aircraft will replace the two Boeing 767-200ERs in Malev's fleet. Malev also plans to sell its four Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft. On 30 March, 2007 Malev expressed interest in buying Sukhoi Superjet 100 planes. ^[6]

Malev`s Boeing 767-200ER HA-LHA, left the fleet in early November and will be flying with Varig. Malev`s other Boeing 767-200ER, HA-LHB will be wet-leased to Oman Air until March of 2008.

Retired fleet

• Canadair CRJ-200ER
• Boeing 737-200
• Boeing 737-300
• Boeing 737-400
• Boeing 737-500
• Ilyushin Il-14
• Ilyushin Il-18
• Ilyushin Il-62
• Lisunov Li-2
• Polikarpov Po-2
• Tupolev Tu-134
• Tupolev Tu-154
• Yakovlev Yak-40

Codeshare agreements

Malév codeshares with the following airlines:

Incidents and Accidents

• On 30 September 1975 a Malév Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft on the Budapest to Beirut route crashed near the Lebanese shoreline. For details see: Malév Flight 240.
• On July 4, 2000, HA-LCR, a chartered MALÉV Tu-154 landed on its belly in Salonica in Greece. The crew had forgotten to lower the undercarriage and the plane skidded 400 metres (440 yards) on the runway. Thanks to the plane's robust construction and the engines' high position, the plane was able to become airborne again as the pilots applied full throttle. It circled while the crew lowered the undercarriage and landed safely.[18] There were no injuries. It was considered uneconomical to repair the aircraft.

References

External links

• Malév Hungarian Airlines official website (in english)
• Malév Hungarian Airlines official website (in hungarian)
• Fleet Age
• Information on Malév Hungarian Airlines (english)
• Fleet

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