Malév Stops Running Direct Flights Budapest – Ekaterinburg

21.04.2009 — News

THE SVERDLOVSK OBLAST.

Malév Hungarian Airlines will run their last direct flight from Ekaterinburg to Budapest on 10 May 2009. This decision is beneficial for Aeroflot - Russian Airlines running the operational management for Malév.

On 1 April Malév suspended flights on Ekaterinburg - Budapest route due to the lack of demand. The company intended to resume the flights from 29 April until the end of the summer timetable increasing the number of flights to three a week. Now, however, you would have to change flights if you want to get to the capital of Hungary from Ekaterinburg.

The local carrier's office informed RusBusinessNews that the decision concerning the future of the route has been made in mid April. The flight will be cancelled due to the shortages of aircraft caused by the expansion of the Malév's destination network in Europe.

This decision coincided with the appointment of Malév's new Chief Executive Officer, Martin Gauss, the ex Managing Director of DBA, a German low cost carrier, and the ex Head of Cirrus Airlines, a regional carrier. According to the Hungarian newspaper Napi Gazdaság, the main propagator of his appointment was Vnesheconombank which holds a 49% stake in AirBridge Zrt. that holds 99.95% of Malév.

"We will need new a direction to be able to navigate Malév out of the current market crisis and prepare it for future challenges," Gauss said in a statement following his appointment; he added that Malév will have to undergo "considerable restructuring and turnaround".

Ekaterinburg tour operators note that, if Malév says the final farewell to Ekaterinburg, Hungary would lose those few tourists from the Urals there were before. "Tourists were very happy to buy package tours when, having arrived and spent few days in Budapest, they would go to Prague or Vienna overland. Without a direct flight this kind of trip becomes inconvenient", one of the RusBusinessNews experts pointed out.

Malév is one of the leading airlines in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2008 Malév carried more than three million passengers; it has a fleet of 25 aircraft. In the summer period Malév and its code sharing agreement partners serve 67 destinations in 36 countries. On 1 April 2007 Malév joined the oneworld alliance that has American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, Cathay Pacific and other carriers as members.