Malev

Tag Archives for Malev.

Air Malta, CityJet, LEVEL, Qantas , Wizz CEO and WOW win 2018 Excellence Awards

The CAPA – Centre for Aviation was launched in 1990, to build aviation knowledge. I find them a great go to site for good deep air research. Since 2003, their annual Awards for Excellence  have been intended to showcase success and industry leadership. Their 2018 winners were announced this week in Berlin at the 2018 CAPA World Aviation Outlook Summit. I wish I had been there for the buzz, the award announcements and the wonderful city that is Berlin. Being in two places is hard to do! And the winners this year were: Airline of…

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Auf Wiedersehen Air Berlin- what went wrong?

Next year should be Air Berlin’s 40th birthday. From a small charter operation founded in 1978, the airline grew to become Germany’s second largest, and Europe’s seventh biggest. 8,600 staff work for the carrier which up to recently, was flying to 42 destinations with a fleet of 114 planes. I have a small soft spot for the airline, its staff, history and most of all its home base, my second favourite city in the world. But nothing seems to be going to save Air Berlin. The airline has been in trouble for some time. I…

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Eastern Europe Airline Update

Following on from last week’s post about Czech air, the ex European bloc airlines have not fared well since the dissolution of the former Soviet states.  In Slovakia, Slovak Airlines closed in 2007, SkyEurope 2009 and Air Slovakia in 2010 Last year, Malev, the airline of nearby Hungary collapsed and WizzAir has made continuous losses since launching in 2003 Poland’s LOT is in financial difficulties Bosnia and Herzegovina B&H Airlines was grounded briefly last month Romanian government owned TAROM has had five years of losses Croatia Airlines has lost money almost every year since commencement in 1989 and was unable to…

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Korean buys Czech Air

Korean Air finalised its 44 percent investment in CSA (Ceske Aerolinie AS), the Czech government owned flag carrier on April 11, 2013 for a nominal price of 2.64 million euros ($US3.4m). The government said: “We only had two options: either find a strategic partner or consider liquidation of CSA”. Korean was the only bidder for the carrier, although Qatar expressed an interest. If the European Commission loosens regulations on foreign ownership of EU carriers then Korean Air will have first option to buy the remaining 56% stake held by the government owned holding company.  If this occurs in the next twelve months, then the price…

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Malév Over Budapest

In doing some research about failed Hungarian carrier Malév, I came across this amazing video.  On August 20, 2006 a Malév 737 followed by a Sky Europe plane flew at a low altitude over Budapest, Hungary. This ten minute video has some stunning view of this beautiful city. The two planes then flew side by side. I assume it was done for the sixtieth anniversay of the founding of the successor to Malév. Ironically, both airlines are gone now.

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Malév Malaise- Hungary’s flag carrier demise

After several horror years of airline failures globally, 2011 was a relatively quiet year with only a small number of airline names vanishing. 2012 has already been busy, however,  with the collapse of Spanair and Cirrus in January.  This week I was sad to see the collapse of Malév, the Hungarian flag carrier. The airline has been on the edge of collapse for years. Shutdown was triggered by a European Commission order to repay  €300 million in “illegal” government subsidies and forced when  Tel Aviv and Dublin airports grounded two of Malév’s jets. On closure day, 30 000 passengers were stranded. The airline had…

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