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New Hungarian airline born: they plan to connect Central European cities
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Aeroexpress Regional is the new brand of a company doing regular air travel service in Finland for more than 30 years. Dániel Somogyi-Tóth, the co-owner of the firm, gave an interview to vg.hu, a Hungarian economy-focused media outlet. He said they cooperate with the Hungarian government about how they could create a regional flight service following European examples. The aim is to connect Central-European cities.
MALÉV, Hungary’s flag carrier between 1946 and 2012, ceased operation in February 2012. Shortly after, a Hungarian start-up airline, announced that they would fill the market gap. However, the new airline never started operation and, apart from high-sounding declarations, they did almost nothing.
Therefore, everybody is sceptical in Hungary if they ever hear about a new Hungarian start-up airline. By the way, Wizz Air is 100% Hungarian, but it never wanted to be Hungary’s flag carrier. Furthermore, it continued to compete for passengers in the budget category, in which it is very successful.
The Aeroexpress Regional, a Hungarian start-up company, announced their first flights connecting Budapest with Cluj-Napoca and Debrecen with Cluj-Napoca and Targu Mures yesterday. The new flights will operate three times a week for a two-month introductory period, during which time passenger feedback will be assessed. Regardless of the feedback, the flights will commute until the end of October, vg.hu wrote today. What happens after that depends on the passengers and the Hungarian government, co-owner Dániel Somogyi-Tóth added.
Considering the financial background, Aeroexpress Légiforgalmi Ltd is behind Aeroexpress Regional. That Ltd was founded and is still owned by BASe Airlines Ltd, a company founded in 1991. Its central base is the Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport. Its planes spent 23 thousand hours in the air in the last 17 years and conducted 27 thousand landings without any problems. The company took part in the operation of Malév’s regional flights and did touristic and public service duties in Italy, Croatia, Denmark and Spain. Therefore, they do not lack experience in the sector. Moreover, they have been doing regular air service for years in Finland, thanks to an agreement with the state.
Dániel Somogyi-Tóth created the Aeroexpress group. Mr Somogyi-Tóth is the director of the Aeropark Aviation Museum near the Ferenc Liszt International Airport. Furthermore, he is also a well-known organist. Flying runs in his veins since his father filled several leading positions in the sector in Budapest and abroad.
They are to start operation in September in cooperation with Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Debrecen’s international airport operator. The local airport won some money on a flight development tender with which they could support their project, Somogyi-Tóth explained. By the way, they operate the hydroplanes at Lake Balaton and would like to reintroduce regular flights there and the River Danube.
