Malev strengthens Croatia network

Malev increasing flights to Croatia

The Hungarian national carrier, Malev, will from March 29 when the 2009 summer season begins, introduce 6 new flights from Budapest to the Croatian capital Zagreb which will mean that there will be a total of 18 weekly flights between the Croatian and Hungarian capitals. Besides introducing new services to Zagreb, Malev will also be offering 5 weekly seasonal flights to Split meaning there will be a total of 23 flights between the two countries. Malev has been operating to Croatia for the last 10 years and reports it has transported a total of 330.000 passengers to Croatia while last year it recorded 40.000 passengers travelling to Croatia while the cabin occupancy varied between 70 and 90% depending on the time of season. The Hungarian carrier expects that with the added flights passengers from Croatia will be tempted to transit through Budapest onwards to Scandinavian destinations such as Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen as well as flights to other European cities such as Warsaw, Dublin and Madrid.

The first scheduled service from Zagreb to Budapest was operated on July 21, 1999. In 2003 it introduced seasonal services to Split and increased weekly frequencies between Zagreb and Budapest to 17. From May 2004 until the winter of 2007 Malev also operated services to Dubrovnik.