Home > Malév Hungarian Airlines

1 History

Malév's origins are somewhat convoluted. Companies like Aero Rt. (founded 1910), Magyar Æeroforgalmi Rt. (MAEFORT) and Magyar Légiforgalmi Rt. (Malert) are clearly 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

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.

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 UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR ( Russian: ; tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (SSSR) also called the Soviet Union ( ; tr. Sovetsky Soyuz , was a state in much of the northern region of Eurasia that existed from 1922 until 1, into all of Europe and the Middle East as well. After the revolution of 19891989 is a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). Events January January 7 Akihito becomes Emperor of Japan following the death of Hirohito. The Heisei period begins January 8 the Kegworth Air Disaster A British Midland Boeing 737 cra and the advent of democracy, Malév started to ditch all its Soviet-era planes and it now runs a fleet of 18 Boeings, mostly refurbished 737The Boeing 737 is a popular short-to-medium range commercial passenger jet aircraft continuously manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes since 1967. Over 5,000 have been sold since its introduction in 1967, more than any other commercial airliner, ands but with two 767-200ERThe Boeing 767 is a commercial passenger airplane manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The Boeing 767, which was introduced in about the same time period as the 757, has a seat-to-aisle ratio in economy class of 3. 5 seats per aisle, making for qu's for long-haul flights, and a few Fokker 70The Fokker 70 is a small twin-engine regional jet airliner and feederliner from the Fokker company. It was developed in the Netherlands and first put into service in 1993. The maximum capacity is 80 passengers or a load of 9,191 kg. Maximum range is 2,040s

2 Present

As of December 2001, Malév flies to 43 cities in 35 countries, with 50 to 60 flights daily.

Malév has not joined any of the large airline alliances, but has code sharingCode sharing is a business term used in the airline industry for a procedure whereby one airline operates a service using its own flight number, e. XX123 and one or more other airlines, in agreement with airline XX, apply their own "code share" flight num agreements with KLMKLM (in full: Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij literally Royal Aviation Company usual English: Royal Dutch Airlines is an airline from the Netherlands. KLM is the Netherlands' main air carrier and operates from Schiphol Airport, near Amsterdam. KLM was, Northwest AirlinesNorthwest Airlines is an airline headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota. With three major hubs in the United States: Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (where it accounts for more than 70% of passenger traffic), Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airp, Finnair and others in the oneworld camp. Malév also has its own frequent-flyer program entitled Duna Club, "Duna" being the Hungarian name for the Danube river.