EX-YU cities loose Budapest flights after Malev collapse
Following Malev’s demise on Friday, EX-YU cities have been left without direct air links to Hungary’s capital Budapest, which, amongst other things, attracted many transit passengers. None of the national carriers of the former Yugoslavia have attempted to introduce flights to Budapest and try to scoop stranded passengers. On Friday Lufthansa, easyJet, Wizz Air and Air Berlin were quick to react and increase frequencies while Ryanair announced over thirty new destinations to the Hungarian capital.Malev had an extensive network in the former Yugoslavia operating flights to Belgrade, Priština, Podgorica, Sarajevo, Skopje and Zagreb. The Hungarian national carrier operated nine weekly flights to Belgrade. Recently, the airline had seen sliding passenger numbers on the route as more competition saw fewer transit passengers. The airline planed to reduce the service to one daily flight from the 2012 summer season. Malev operated two daily flights to Priština and thirteen weekly to Skopje, from which it saw numerous transit passengers. There were no plans to either increase or reduce flights over the coming summer. Sarajevo enjoyed daily flights and Podgorica six weekly while nearby Zagreb saw 18 weekly services between the two cities this winter. None of the former Yugoslav national carriers operate flights to the Hungarian capital and none have jumped at the opportunity to inaugurate services between the two cities since Malev’s demise. While the Hungarian low cost airline Wizz Air is based in Belgrade, it is unlikely it will be tempted to launch flights between the two cities as its aircraft are too big and inter Eastern European flights have proved unsuccessful for the airline in the past.
Officials at Budapest Airport, one of the biggest losers of Malev’s grounding, said it doubts the flights will ever be reinstated. "There are some estimates that over 20 or 23 routes of Malev will never be served by other airlines", airport spokesmen Mihaly Hardy said. It is believed that the Hungarian government will work to set up a new national carrier by the start of the 2012 summer season, which begins in over a month. It remains to be seen whether EX-YU destinations, on which Malev had a complete monopoly, will be resumed.
http://aerovesti.blogspot.com/2012/02/suhoj-nudi-jatu-nove-avione.html
ReplyDeleteIf Jat can get any worse than they are right now it will be if they but these Sukhoi’s. Honestly, a huge piece of cheap junk!
DeleteIt's the two 'biggies' (BUD-BEG & BUD-ZAG) which have the potential. Zašto? There are already connections every other city on that list just from those two airports, and an established market of people *wanting* to fly out of the smaller cities on that list.
ReplyDeleteWhat we don't know of course is how many people flew MA transiting at BUD rather than O&D. But it can be assumed that these potential pax have already considered flying OU or JU but connections were poor, price too high etc, wrong airline loyalty points etc.
Let me use OU as an example here. MA flew 18 return flights a week in summer, using 30-seat aircraft which were noisy and slow. Who was using the service? At least half of the people were connecting to other MA flights, predominantly destinations that OU did not cover direct.
Could OU run a daily return-service using a Q400? Definitely, if it cleverly ran the route in the W.Europe wave, allowing connections to SPU/DBV/SJJ/SKP/PRN. Suddenly it's not only taking ZAG pax, and it attracts those who need to travel to BUD. Would it be yielding-enough? I believe so, outside of MOL employees (big company using MA and, increasingly, QR), it's not the Hungarian economy/population who are likely on these flights, its the exYU business traveller already in the market, expecting guaranteed connections that an LCC can't and won't provide.
This highlights why OU really needs another Q400 or two, these sub-500NM routes that should be in its core network: MXP, WAW, BUD, SOF and BEG.
For the record, I also see AB starting daily flights to ZAG from BER, someone needs to close one of oneworld's new network 'holes'. And I expect the competition from LH to be fierce...
@ Admin: SPU was also served seasonally by MA
There is only one winner with the departure of MA, and that is the struggling OS. They have been handed complete access to many exYU/E.European destinations from major N./W.European destinations, and the passenger loses as a result. Fewer flights, fewer seats, higher prices - bad for the region, and bad for business.
ReplyDeleteThe two cities in the exYU that have daily direct links to all on that list (and SPU was also served seasonally!) are ZAG and BEG. Will we see either carrier launch flights? MA flew much connecting traffic from the exYU, how much is O&D is hard to know. The two carriers based at those airports have the right (prop) equipment for the short routes, but would they fit into the current scheduling?
Travelling as a oneworld FF now is an enormous disadvantage in the region, and ZAG has no regular oneworld airline serving it (MAD is seasonal). Would it be surprising to see AB (or one of its subsidiaries) enter the ZAG market? VIE is already saturated, could BER work?
Another thought, if QR sees fit to now demand 5th freedom BUD-ZAG with MA off the route and it becomes profitable, would ZAG-DOH direct be in jeopardy?
Well Sukhoi Superjets are actually pretty good planes. It would be great for JAT if they got this plane or something similar, maybe Bombardier CSeries, Embraer Ejets e.t.c. I think that one of the exyu carriers again, maybe JAT should join oneworld. They should also jump in and start servicing the exyu flights that MALEV operated from BUD.
ReplyDeletePointless for OU to fly ZAG-BUD as very little O&D, however SPU-BUD would be useful as MA were flying 6 weekly in the summer with many more O&D tourists.
ReplyDeletePeople, why do all this airlines go bankrupt?
ReplyDeleteBecause they sell tickets under the price and even with that they have low LF.
With flights out of EX-YU you can get how many seats are available, and think if there are so many pax to fill them?
Same as MA is with OK, they are in the same shape.
For out of PRN, Adria has good prices :)
I was at BEG early this morning. Yes, JU transferred to T1, but due to closure of 201-211 check-in counters. At T1, JU uses 502-508 check in counters, they still print boarding passes and luggage tickets, every counter has its own computer, PA girl announces JUs relocation to T1 every 10 or so minutes, so I dont see a reason not to use T1 check in system on a regular basis if its slightly cheaper?
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, snow made delays again, some flights were cancelled...
Regarding Sukhoi jets - I bet they were meant to be delivered to MA, but obviously they wont be flying in its color scheme anytime soon.
If JU and OU had any aviation knowledge they would use this opportunity and at least start BUD on a daily basis. JU with AT7 and OU with DH4. Every mayor airline increased its services to BUD, only smarta**es from te exYU region did nothing. Idiots.
Doubt that JU has any spare small planes for BUD, and BEG/Ex-YU-BUD O&D demand is doubtful while drawing transits from BUD would be a hard task with all those LCCs there. After all, presume that serving PRG would be a bigger priority than BUD...
DeleteIt seems like obvious thing to do but would OU want to serve a one world hub? I guess most pax from Zagreb to Budapest were transit passengers.
DeleteJU500 you are a dumbass. MA picked up transit passengers from ZAG and BEG. JU and OU have no reason to fly to BUD as very small O&D. As pointed out above BUD-SPU would be useful in summer as a tourist route
DeleteWhat both JU and OU should do in the wake of MA's collapse instead of opening BEG/ZAG to BUD is capacity increase to SKP and SJJ to pick up transit passengers. If they were wise enough, they could divide markets and let OU focusing to SJJ and JU to SKP and that's it
DeleteAnd while BUD is being converted into lcc hub my concern is if T1 at BUD has enough capacity to accept such a huge increase, since all lcc use T1
ASomewhat of topic, but I do not see JAT helping with BUDAPEST.Here is why, JAT has to firstg re-establish itself. I read in AIRWISE NEWS, that the business men who afre thinking of taking over JAT, would only keep PROFITABLE routes and cut staff levels from 1200 to 400. With these type of cutsd I do not see JAT being an important player anymore.As to a previous blog, on ex yu, many were talking ab out AA then flying to BEG. Do you not think that they are looking at what is going on with JAT....Would they have a reliable feeder airline...So now we afre saying JAT going to BUDAPEST to fill the gap....I wouldnèt count on that
ReplyDeleteActually, I would really want to know what routes are profitable and which ones aren't. Okay i get that flying to Paris, London, Moscow, Amsterdam is profitable, and someone mentioned that TGD, SKP, SJJ are not? Frankly I dont see why TGD is not profitable?
DeleteJU's routes are unprofitable because huge fixed costs related to oversized number of employees are attributed to them.
DeleteAnother thing that most people don't understand is that all these routes are correlated, and so if you cut e.g. flights to SKP, basically mostly generating feeder traffic, you will loose these passengers for London, Paris or Moscow flights also. The same applies for other routes generating significant feeder traffic like TGD, SJJ or TIV, often being cited as "not profitable", which is again mostly due to these fixed costs having little to do directly with demand and yields on those routes.
Generally thinking, one can hardly imagine flying 70-80% loaded turboprops with average fare of like 115-130 EUR being unprofitable...
It's cool that Olympic is using its A319 to Belgrade today. It seems that BEG-ATH numbers are on the rise.
ReplyDeleteOlynpic will send A319 tommorow also.
DeleteDoes anybody know Olumpic airlines loads to and from BEG?
Imam povratni let Maleva za april mjesec. Zna li iko sta ce biti, da li cu sve izgubiti ili ce mi vratiti pare ili ce me prebukirati ?
ReplyDeleteMalev je imao ured u Westin-u u Zagrebu, nezma da li ga još ima ali ako da možda tamo dobiješ odgovor!
Deletezatvoren je davnih dana taj ured, ja sam kartu kupio u putnickoj agenmciji i tamo sam njih odmah u petak kontaktirao i oni su mi rekli da trenuitno imaju info samo za karte do 29.2 a za poslije nista ne znaju...
ReplyDeleteja sam prvi put u oovakvoj situaciji i pojma nemam sta cu da radim...
OT:
ReplyDeleteSky Work Airlines in Summer 2012 season is further boosting frequencies on Bern - Belgrade route, with service increase to 4 weekly, starting 24 June:
SX700 1135BRN-1335BEG 1267 EQV
SX701 1405BEG-1610BRN 1267 EQV
Btw from the official Sky Work website: Average cabin occupancy was 50%, with the exception of London City and Belgrade averaging at 77% and 76% respectively.
Deletegood news finally!
DeleteThat's fantastic. Love this route. But, I notice that their prices are way up suddenly
DeleteGreat! Hopefully they'll go daily soon :)
DeleteMalev is government owned.
ReplyDeleteEU law says every airline or its owner has to pay back ticket if airline goes bancrupt !
They have a fond filled with money to pay back money to passengers !
Dont let you fool by agency which bought you a ticket !
You have right to get your money back
thank ypu very much for information. I hope so that i will get my money back.
ReplyDeleteBlago meni, evo kako se "uspjesan" model koncesije/privatizacije izjalovio protiv Madjarske.
ReplyDeleteReuters javlja kako jos uvijek nije jasno kolike ce kompenzacije madjarska vlada morati dati vlasnicima, tj. 75-godisnjim koncesionarima na ZL Budimpesta zbog prestanka letenja Maleva. Maksimalan iznos bi mogao ici cak do 1,5 milijardi EUR, no vlada tvrdi da ce iznos biti bitno manji, te nastoji isto smanjiti dolaskom LCC. Istime trazi od svih relevantnih institucija, da ukoliko ne mogu iznaci cjelovito rjesenje (nova nacionalna kompanija, ekvivalentna baza drugog prijevoznika is.) da hitno pokrenu bilateralne pregovore sa sto vecim brojem stranih kompanija.
Da rezimiramo:
1. Malev bankrotira (prvenstveno jer drzava ne smije ulagati u svoj strateski alat)
2. Madjarska gubi stratesku prednost jer se 20-23 linije, prvenstvno prema JI Europi, nece nikada pokrenuti, te time prestaje biti srediste regije.
3. Madjarska vlada zbog svega toga mora kompenzirati koncesionaru iznos do 1,5 milijardi EUR - dakle ne moze taj novac investirati u svoju nacionalnu kompaniju da bi ispunjavala strateski interes, ali moze dati privatniku koji ce "izgubiti" profit na zracnoj luci (zar rizik poslovanja nije sastavni dio investicije)
Kako sada nitko ne postavlja pitanje kakav je to ugovor, zasto se sada privatniku trpaju dzepovi? I ovdje je potpisan jednako nepovoljan ugovor, kao i u slucaju Abramovica, ugovor kojim se drzavni novac prelijeva u privatne dzepove, kojim se naknadjuje neciji gubitak profita, lose poslovanje... Hoce li i sada Europska komsija traziti povrat tog novca ili proglasiti ugovor nistavnim? Ili "liberalna ekonomija" vrijedi samo kada se radi o Rusima i Neeuropejcima, a zanemaruje se kada se radi o "braci" iz Europske Unije. Mene su ucili da se to zove diskriminacija.
Eto, jos jednih kojima je "slucajno" pala sjekira pala u med bankrotom Maleva. No, jos bitnije je kako je koncesija "odlicna stvar za drzavu", pa je svakako treba primjeniti i u Zagrebu..
Jesus Christ Purger -
Deleteit must have been a bad contract- that's all.
OU and ZLZ have a good chance to make things right. In fact, we are lucky that French are interested in developing business. Lucky, as they are used to seeing strikes at ADP - something that scared all other concessioners off.
The other day I spoke with a person who was a member of the team that prepared financial model. That person said that the reason why most others quit was the fact that Barajas is getting ready to be given under concession. The other reason has to do with fixed operational expenses (komunalna naknada and personnel costs). French are luckily used to sindicalists and their ridiculous "rights". all relevant people in croatian airline and airport industry claim that most people working at ZLZ are hinhly unqualified, yet have astronomical privileges etc.
You are matkovic's lobbist - so you are totally irrelevant to say anything on concession.
ljudi, ne nasjedajte na "pametovanja" bloggera pod nickom purger. covjek nema veze s avijacijom, a na ovom blogu se predstavlja kao sveznalica na svakoj temi.
ReplyDeleteAjmo da ban purgera onda haha.... just kidding, pusti coveka na miru nek pise sta oce. Valjda zivimo u demokratiji!!!
DeleteOK, here are some articles from Reuters and other important news agencies about Bouygues, ONLY CANDIDATE FOR CONCESION. Let me also remind you how good contract for Istria Y was with Bouygues (we have to pay some 5 billion kunas for that).
ReplyDeleteQuote:
Bouygues built many white marble buildings in the numerous sites of Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, where hundreds of houses of local residents were demolished before to clear the places for construction. Reportedly, the view of the ordinary residential apartments close to the presidential palace annoyed Turkmenbashy, the deceased dictator of Turkmenistan, who wanted the city to look like a "paradise". Most of the expelled residents did not get any housing instead or only got empty patches of land or, in the best case, inferior apartments in cheap outskirt areas. Those who dared to protest almost always faced sanctions from the government.
Bouygues has expanded its business in Turkmenistan recently, according to the WikiLeaks website, reviewed by the French newspaper Le Monde.
During the global economic crisis of 2008, the company scaled back operations in most of the world, but had added 450 expatriate employees in Turkmenistan. The amount required to bribe the government to win a contract had increased, while the price of construction contracts is inflated by up to 30 percent to accommodate the bribes to everyone from the smallest subcontractor to top government officials. The French Embassy has tried to distance itself from Bouygues.
Bouygues exposed itself to big risk in Turkmenistan because it relies on a single client, the government. The company is thus vulnerable to liquidity problems. A former French diplomat based in Ashgabat, Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer stated that Bouygues built about 50 buildings in the city, amounting to over 2 billion euros.
Quote:
ReplyDeleteA major controversy erupted in 2000 when Bouygues refused to bid for a 3G technology license. The government was demanding a flat-rate fee of $4.5 billion. Bouygues balked, and Europe was stunned. "Martin Bouygues has taken a harsh line over recent months in denouncing the asking price for French UMTS licences," wrote a reporter for Tech Europe (February 2, 2001). Bouygues maintained that the exorbitant price demanded for the license, coupled with the expenses required to get up and running, would virtually bankrupt the entire European telecom industry, and he lodged a complaint with the European Commission. Although the company was under intense pressure, spending such a huge sum on unproven technology was, to Bouygues, sheer madness. On May 6, 2000, Bouygues wrote one of several highly critical letters warning the entire continent of the dangers of doing so. The letter appeared on the front page of Le Monde . In it Bouygues said that many telecom providers faced a no-win situation: Either they quit the business, as a result of not bidding for a license, or they buy the license and drown in a sea of debt. An article in BusinessWeek quoted from that letter: "What should I tell my employees?… That we have a choice between a sudden death and a slow one?" (June 3, 2002).
Bouygues's warnings went unheeded, but in 2002 his prediction came to fruition when 3G technology stumbled due to poor timing and a range of other issues. Investors became nervous, stocks plummeted, and financial losses hurt many of Europe's largest telecommunication companies. "Europe's phone giants—after spending half a trillion dollars on licenses, acquisitions, and networks—are treading madly to stay afloat in a sea of debt … Deutsche Telekom is sitting on $60 billion in liabilities and casting about frantically for assets to sell," wrote the author of the BusinessWeek article (June 3, 2002). All Bouygues had to do was wait. "To entice him to even bid for a license, the French government had to slash the fees from $4.4 billion to $557 million," noted the BusinessWeek reporter. In 2002 Bouygues pocketed a cut-price license and announced his intention to launch I-mode with technology licensed from the experienced and successful Japanese NTT DoCoMo. Bouygues promised the company not to disclose the cost. "Bouygues now plans to roll out his new network—slowly," commented the BusinessWeek reporter. According to an article on the ANANOVA Web Site, when questioned about his lengthy stonewalling, Bouygues merely said, "I regret nothing." He commented that without his standoff, the government would not have cut prices. By May 2004 the I-mode service had become hugely successful, amassing more than 666,000 customers. "The company remains true to its philosophy of offering high-quality services that are easy to use, practical and affordable," Bouygues wrote in his corporate profile on the Bouygues Web site.
Quote:
ReplyDeleteRecalling that former Udecott chairman Calder Hart’s ties to a Malaysian company which was awarded a $368 million contract to build the Legal Affairs Tower have been confirmed, Ramlogan exposed what he described as “the French Connection” between the PNM and French construction firm Bouygues Batiment in the award of a $300 million contract to design, build and outfit police stations in Arima, Cumuto, Guapo, Maloney, Moruga and Piarco.
Ramlogan said although this contract was executed on March 29, this year, $3.6 million was paid to Bouygues on May 14, ten days before the May 24 General Election.
“As if that was not bad enough, then they paid a further $10 million to Bouygues on May 14,” he said. Another $5 million was paid to Bouygues on May 19, he said, adding that it seemed Udecott was trying to advertise its “success record” to convince the population to re-elect the PNM to office.
Ramlogan expressed concern that two Udecott offici%als, Hayden Paul and Brandon Primus, issued a notice to Bouygues to proceed with construction of the police stations although Udecott had not cleared the sites for construction to begin.
Stating Udecott had no CEO nor board of directors in place at that time, Ramlogan referred to Government as now receiving letters from Bouygues, and said the company is entitled to payments of approximately $21 million within 14 days and an additional $145,000 per day that the stations are not built.
Claiming this was an attempt to “bind the hands” of the Partnership and further burden the state of the economy, Ramlogan scoffed, “Not a nail pounded into a piece of board. Not a posthole dug but we the taxpayers and the economy have to continue to shell it out.”
Noting Bouygues was the leader of the TriniTrain consortium that was awarded the $15 billion Rapid Rail contract, Ramlogan said Bouygues “seemed to have been the favoured contractor in this country” and questioned its ties with the former Patrick Manning government.
“The root of the scandal and the corruption tree grows very deep,” he said. Stating Bouygues was a joint venture partner with Home Construction Limited, he said this evoked memories of former PNM treasurer Andre Monteil and the $110 million share controversy with Home Mortgage Bank and Stone Street Capital.
Quote:
ReplyDeleteIn 1995, pursuant to France's 1993 anticorruption clampdown, French police raided the Bouygues Group headquarters and held Bouygues for investigation on huge frauds involving illegal deposits allegedly made to a Swiss bank account that investigators believed may have been used to fund the reelection campaign of the former mayor of Lyon, Michael Noir. In 1996 Bouygues, along with two other prominent French business executives, was again investigated on allegations that ranged from accounting fraud to bribery. A year later Bouygues, Le Lay, and Philippe Chalendon, the commercial director of an arm of Bouygues Offshore, were placed under investigation in a case of alleged false billing and misuse of corporate assets involving approximately 40 companies in and around Paris. David Owen of the Financial Times wrote, "Bouygues would last night make no comment … except to emphasise that the men would continue 'fully' to exercise their corporate functions" (February 28, 1997). Owen noted that Bouygues was among several companies fined the year before by the French competition council for "price-fixing and other anticompetitive behavior in public sectors. The council accused 36 French companies of creating cartels for contracts ranging from the TGV high-speed railway to the Normandy suspension bridge over the Seine. The company is appealing the decision."
In 1998 the Bouygues Group and two of France's other largest construction companies were subjected to a major investigation for an alleged agreed system for misappropriating public funds. An extensive article on the Public Services International Research Unit Web site read, "The companies participated in a corrupt cartel over building work for schools in the Ile-de-France region between 1989 and 1996. Contracts worth FF 28 billion (approximately $500 million) were shared out by the three groups, in meetings that took place in a hotel near the Champs-Elysees in Paris"
Quote:
ReplyDeleteRecalling that former Udecott chairman Calder Hart’s ties to a Malaysian company which was awarded a $368 million contract to build the Legal Affairs Tower have been confirmed, Ramlogan exposed what he described as “the French Connection” between the PNM and French construction firm Bouygues Batiment in the award of a $300 million contract to design, build and outfit police stations in Arima, Cumuto, Guapo, Maloney, Moruga and Piarco.
Ramlogan said although this contract was executed on March 29, this year, $3.6 million was paid to Bouygues on May 14, ten days before the May 24 General Election.
“As if that was not bad enough, then they paid a further $10 million to Bouygues on May 14,” he said. Another $5 million was paid to Bouygues on May 19, he said, adding that it seemed Udecott was trying to advertise its “success record” to convince the population to re-elect the PNM to office.
Ramlogan expressed concern that two Udecott offici%als, Hayden Paul and Brandon Primus, issued a notice to Bouygues to proceed with construction of the police stations although Udecott had not cleared the sites for construction to begin.
Stating Udecott had no CEO nor board of directors in place at that time, Ramlogan referred to Government as now receiving letters from Bouygues, and said the company is entitled to payments of approximately $21 million within 14 days and an additional $145,000 per day that the stations are not built.
Claiming this was an attempt to “bind the hands” of the Partnership and further burden the state of the economy, Ramlogan scoffed, “Not a nail pounded into a piece of board. Not a posthole dug but we the taxpayers and the economy have to continue to shell it out.”
Noting Bouygues was the leader of the TriniTrain consortium that was awarded the $15 billion Rapid Rail contract, Ramlogan said Bouygues “seemed to have been the favoured contractor in this country” and questioned its ties with the former Patrick Manning government.
“The root of the scandal and the corruption tree grows very deep,” he said. Stating Bouygues was a joint venture partner with Home Construction Limited, he said this evoked memories of former PNM treasurer Andre Monteil and the $110 million share controversy with Home Mortgage Bank and Stone Street Capital.
An so on, and so on (Southampton Gatewaya, Highway 2000 in Jamaica, Basil Read in South Africa...)
In the 1990's BUD profited from the wars and sanctions in ex-YU and took away from BEG the role of region's hub. Only idiots at JU can't see the chance of opening a BUD-BEG service and making the same thing happen the other way around.
ReplyDeleteBTW why was the entire MA's fleet leased out?
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