Jump to content

Malév Hungarian Airlines

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by SmackBot (talk | contribs) at 17:07, 8 March 2006 (RM caps in section headers and/or minor fixes using AWB). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Malév Hungarian Airlines
File:Malev Hungarian Airlines logo.png
IATA ICAO Call sign
MA MAH Malev
Founded1946 (as Hungarian-Soviet Civil Air Transport Joint Stock Company)
HubsBudapest Ferihegy International Airport
Frequent-flyer programDuna Club
Fleet size29
Destinations58
HeadquartersBudapest, Hungary
Key peopleJános Gönci (CEO)
Websitehttp://www.malev.hu

Malév Hungarian Airlines, a translation of the Hungarian Magyar Légiközlekedési Vállalat, is the national airline of Hungary. The accent indicates that the E is long, so the name is pronounced Mah-layv.

Malév will join the oneworld alliance at the turn of 2006 and 2007.

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 ended all Hungarian civil aviation and these companies along with it. Thus, the official founding date is 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-person Li-2 passenger aircraft (the Soviet-licensed DC-3) and 3-person Po-2 "taxis", used for precision air mail: sacks of mail were dropped from the aircraft when flying over the destination. In 1950, Malév's base of operations moved from Budaörs to the newly opened airport at Ferihegy, where it has remained ever since.

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, into all of Europe and the Middle East as well. Even before the revolution of 1989 and the arrival of democracy, Malév started to phase 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 The last Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-154 was withdrawn from the fleet in 2001. In 2003, Malév began to replace its Boeing 737 Classic aircraft with the new 737 Next-Generation planes. It now runs a fleet of 17 Boeings 737s but with two 767-200ER's for long-haul flights, and a few Fokker 70s and Canadair CRJ-200's for short hops.

Present

Since 1999, the Hungarian state property agency ÁPV Rt. (Állami Privatizációs és Vagyonkezelõ Rt.) has owned 99.5% of the Malév shares, with the other 0.5% in the hands of small shareholders. ÁPV Rt has repeatedly tried to privatize Malév - so far to no avail. (The last auction results, the winning bid being that placed by Russia's KrasAir, were annulled by the Hungarian authorities [1]).

As of December 2001, Malév flies to 43 cities in 35 countries, with 50 to 60 flights daily. All Malév flights leave Budapest Ferihegy airport from Terminal 2A.

Despite CSA Czech Airlines' offer to sponsor Malév as an associate member of the SkyTeam Alliance, and Malév's codesharing agreements with a number of SkyTeam carriers, the airline chose to join oneworld as a full member. After Malév has met the requirements of the agreement, it could be expected to join the oneworld alliance in 2006.

Incidents and accidents

Destinations

Further information: [[:Malév Hungarian Airlines destinations]]

Malév Hungarian Airlines flies primarily to destinations in Europe, but also services Asia, Africa and North America.

Fleet

Current Fleet

The Malév fleet consists of the following aircraft (at August 2005):

Former Aircraft

See also

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Malév_Hungarian_Airlines&oldid=42830633"