The government has transferred HUF 5.7bn to national carrier Malev to prevent the repossession of some of its aircraft by a US leasing company, business weekly Figyelo said in its fresh issue on Thursday.
The aircraft were to be repossessed because Malev is behind on some HUF 3bn in payments, Figyelo said.
Quoting “sources close to the company’s affairs”, Figyelo said representatives of the US International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), from whom Malev leases its fleet, held talks with the airline’s management because it “has not recently been able to transfer money to its partner at the required pace without external assistance,” Figyelo said.
Malev communications chief Adam Hegedus said the airline has been paying ILFC on time, but had discussed the scheduling of the payments with its partner at talks in Budapest.
Malev was renationalised in February through a HUF 25.4bn capital raise by the state, including HUF 20.7bn in cash and HUF 4.7bn in converted debt. The state acquired a 95pc stake in the airline and former majority owner AirBridge kept 5pc. Russia’s state-owned Vnesheconombank (VEB), one of Malev’s biggest creditors, owns 49pc of AirBridge.
Zoltan Kamaras, a member of Malev’s board, said the airline would get HUF 9.2bn in loans from its owner this year, although more would be necessary.
Seems that Malév is another basket case …
Or is there really hope for them ? I’m a bit afraid of using them – probably will take off from Vienna with some “reliable” airline like Air France/KLM/Delta …
A government that subsidises the running of a
funfair (vidampark) can hardly be expected to let
the national flag carrier go broke, can it? Well,
perhaps they are the same thing.
I am wondering what the Hungarian founder, Stephen Udvar-Hazy, of the International Lease Finance Corporation is thinking about all this Malev-Balev, tra-la-lev stuff?? Another Gyurcsany casino effect left over – skim the top, milk it for all you can, get a loan when it gets rough backed by guess who and milk it some more. Check the Malev flight manifests going to Cypress the last 6+ years. Hmm – the cargo decks were heavy with cash.
Hungary is just like any other crappy little third world country and that means you gotta have an airline man. You know, it is a sign that you are a REAL manly country.
Broke government buys back “national carrier” out of pride. Well, they are still broke and so is the airline. And now they throw more money to back up their lousy investment.
Next they can expropriate the planes from the greedy western owners.
You guys are slightly retarded. Malev is trying to position itself as the carrier inside of Europe for all of the long haul business. This will draw the larger internationals to fly here and make the short haul European short hops. It;s not really somthign you can just build up over night. Why do you think QatarAir is starting to come here?