The board of directors of  Hungary’s National Malév Airline announced after close to 66 years of continuous operation, Malév aircrafts will not depart from 6 am 03 February.

The Chief  Executive Officer of the airline Loránt Limburger. stated: “Unfortunately, the event occurred which we had a greatest fear of and we wanted to avoid with might and main. Although, until the latter days there were prospects to continue operation and the trust of our passengers is unbroken, our partners lost their trust due to the information published in the last days and they started to ask for payment of their services in advance. This speeded up the cash outflow and the situation of the airline became untenable. It is also known that the owner, despite the best intentions, is unable to provide additional financial resources to operate after the EU decision. Considering all these the Board decided to order the cease of operation of the Hungary’s National Airline. We apologize to all of our passengers.”

While oneworld airlines are outlining the steps they are taking to assist customers affected by Malév Hungarian Airlines' suspension of all services today.

Two other oneworld members serve its Hungary home, with British Airways and Finnair both operating to Budapest, from their London Heathrow and Helsinki hubs respectively, with airberlin launching flights to the Hungarian capital from its Berlin base from Monday (6 February).

Passengers booked before today on code-share flights carrying the BA, AY (Finnair), JL (Japan Airlines) or AB (member elect airberlin) codes but which were to be operated by Malév are being offered alternative travel arrangements, or refunds in line with their regular fare rules.

Passengers booked before today to fly on Malév code-share flights (ie, with an MA code) operated by British Airways, Finnair or airberlin to Budapest are being offered assistance for travel on British Airways, Finnair or airberlin, subject to availability.

British Airways is also offering Malév passengers stranded away from home by the airline's suspension of services special repatriation fares.  airberlin is also offering Malév passengers special fares on its new Berlin-Budapest route.

Most oneworld member airlines are also offering to rebook customers with a connecting sector on Malév onto alternative carriers for that connecting sector, where possible.  For details, see each individual airline's website or contact their reservations centres.

All but five of the 53 destinations on Malév's network are served by other airlines in oneworld.  The exceptions are Bosnia-Herzegovina's Sarajevo, Montenegro's Podgorica, Romania's Cluj-Napoca and Tirgu Mures and Ukraine's

Source:  Malév's and oneworld