BUDAPEST, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The first plane in the fledgling Solyom (the name means falcon) Hungarian Airways backed by unnamed Omani and Emirati investors landed in Budapest on Sunday.
The Boeing 737-500 is the first of six craft leased from the British company European Aviation Group, and is envisaged to mark the re-start of a Hungarian airline.
Hungary has been without a flagship carrier since early 2012, when the national airline Malev folded. Solyom is privately owned.
Solyom plans to take to the air as a charter carrier initially, until all permits and operator certificates are in hand and all six aircraft are in Budapest, to enable it to begin scheduled flights. Tickets are not yet on sale but scheduled flights are envisaged to begin in early October.
Solyom CEO Jozsef Vago said that the new airline would initially fly its six aircraft to 22 destinations, including six European capitals.
According to press reports, Solyom plans to reach full capacity in 2017 with some fifty craft. It is envisaged as a full-service carrier and not a discount airline.
The airline announced early in August that it would be hiring, and after saying that it had received ten times more applications than the number of jobs available, its website reported that it would not accept any further applications.
The start-up Boeings were built in 1990, 1991, and 1992 and have been refurbished.
One of Solyom's main competitors will be Hungarian discount airline Wizz Air that has been in operation for a decade and currently owns 43 planes - Airbuses averaging 4 years or less in age - and flies to 93 destinations in 32 countries. Wizz Air is also based in Budapest.
No comments:
Post a Comment