Wizz Air carries a third more passengers today than before the pandemic. However, the weakening forint, the strengthening dollar and the plunge in oil prices are weakening the airline’s position. The Hungarian low-cost airline has not incorporated the departure tax into its ticket prices, József Váradi, the company’s CEO, told HVG.
HVG asked József Váradi, CEO of Wizz Air, about the cost of the departure tax for the company and how they are trying to recover it, whether they are planning domestic flights, and how the investigation into the summer flight cancellations is progressing.
On cost increases and the departure tax
The CEO pointed out that the general trend in the industry is for prices to rise as costs increase. Wizz Air is also negatively affected by the weak euro and the rising price of kerosene, while technological improvements and fleet renewal are driving prices down. However, Váradi added that the upward price effect is expected to be stronger in the next 1-2 years.
As for the special tax, Váradi said that it would mean a 3-4 percent increase in costs for the company. This is relatively low compared to the fact that the weight of kerosene in costs has increased from 30 percent to 50 percent before the pandemic and the euro has weakened 20 percent against the dollar, Portfolio. As for the fuel hedging, Váradi said that from April 2023, the company’s hedging scope will revert to the pre-pandemic period. However, the truth is that the company is not well funded in the current period, he added.
On Ryanair’s flight cuts in Hungary, the CEO said that the reason behind them was not necessarily the departure tax, but rather that the competitor had brought in unprofitable capacity to gain market share. As for international expansion, Váradi said that this is the reason why the Wizz Air group now carries 33 percent more passengers than before the pandemic, making it the fastest growing airline in Europe. The CEO did not provide any new information on the consumer protection case against the company, but stressed that the delays and cancellations were caused by a dysfunctional operating environment.
“We don’t consider ourselves fundamentally responsible for this: if you look at the cancellations in Europe, Wizz Air cancelled just as many as the European average, we were not at all out of line.” As for future targets, Váradi said that by 2030 they would like to have a fleet of 500 aircraft, up from the current 170. Wizz Air will remain a Central and Eastern European airline, but the company is also expanding in Western Europe and sees opportunities in the East, he added.
Considering the current economic situation, Budapest Airport decided to give its employees an extraordinary 10 percent wage increase, which will take effect from October 2022.
Budapest Airport employees will receive a 10 percent wage increase
After the average 13 percent wage increase in March, the airport operator made a proposal for further wage improvement. The union representatives unanimously accepted the proposal, reports liner.hu. Therefore, employees of the BUD group will receive the increased wages already in November. At BUD Security Kft., the starting basic salary of passenger security inspectors is HUF 444,800 (EUR 1049,06) gross as of October. In addition, the starting salary of terminal operation and information staff responsible for passenger information will also increase to HUF 444,800 gross per month, writes portfolio.hu.
Zsuzsa Zahorán-Pirisi, HR director of Budapest Airport, explained regarding the wage development:
“During the year 2022, Budapest Airport has already implemented a significant wage improvement, but we can all see that inflation and rising utility prices have put Hungarian employees in a difficult situation. I am glad that Budapest Airport is moving forward in cooperation with its employees and supporting each other even in this extraordinary situation. We continue to count on our colleagues; in fact, we are constantly expanding our team, as our common goal is to provide the best possible service to our passengers at the airport.”
The goal is to support employees even in the most difficult situations
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Budapest Airport viewed it as a priority to maintain the health and financial security of the employees of the BUD group. At the beginning of April 2020, the company decided to set up a foundation to support colleagues who are dealing with difficulties. The management launched this initiative by offering an average of one month’s salary. Furthermore, the shareholders of Budapest Airport decided to support the activities of the BUD Group Employee Foundation by doubling the amount already collected.
Since then, the aim of the foundation has been to support current or former employees whose physical or mental health and social security have been endangered due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In the past year, the foundation has supported many employees with a regular monthly sum of money.
A Wizz Air flight from Stockholm to Budapest was supposed to take off at 9 p.m. on Sunday. However, the flight was postponed to Monday. On top of that, as the airline failed to arrange accommodation, the passengers had to spend the entire night at the airport.
Wizz Air plane had a technical issue
Wizz Air has been experiencing difficulties lately, causing inconveniences for hundreds of passengers. This Sunday (09.26), a flight from Stockholm to Budapest was supposed to take off at 9 p.m. However, the flight was postponed to Monday. Travellers received the first notification around 5 p.m. that the plane was expected to have a 40-minute delay, a passenger wrote to 444.hu. The check-in had already started at that point but it was abruptly stopped. Nobody knew exactly how much the waiting time would be as passengers did not receive any further information. At around 1 a.m, the pilot announced that they were dealing with a technical issue. Therefore, the departure was postponed to 2 p.m., the following day.
Passengers did not receive the promised accommodation
Although Wizz Air assured passengers that the company would arrange accommodation, the promise did not pan out, reports blikk.hu. Initially, the passengers were directed to the waiting room, where they stayed for two hours. Following that, they received information that the earliest plane, which was supposed to leave for Budapest on Monday morning, was full. The unfortunate travelers had to spend the night at the airport. According to the latest information, the plane would take off at 2:40 p.m. at the earliest on Monday instead of the 9 p.m. departure on Sunday. Wizz Air has not yet commented on the incident.
This is not the first time Wizz Air passengers got stranded at the airport
The Hungarian airline has already let down its passengers numerous times. For instance, on 15 May, Wizz Air left its passengers in Paris, who were supposed to fly to Budapest. The flight from the Hungarian capital could not land at Paris Orly Airport due to a major storm. As a result, the plane was diverted to Brussels. Finally, airport staff helped people to reach some local hotels in the area at around 2 a.m.
The Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air has announced 11 new routes and is ready to conquer the Middle East. However, most of the routes have competition from other airlines.
The new routes of Wizz Air
According to simpleflying.com, the new routes are the following:
Athens to Tel Aviv
London Luton to Łódź
London Luton to Bydgoszcz
Rome Fiumicino to Gothenburg
Rome Fiumicino to Paris Orly
Rome Fiumicino to Barcelona
Rome Fiumicino to Valencia
Rome Fiumicino to Porto
Rome Fiumicino to Seville
Rome Fiumicino to Malaga
Tirana to Athens
The Hungarian airline has only operated one of these routes before (London Luton to Łódź), between September 2011 and May 2013. In addition, 10 of the 11 routes involve bases, therefore, they are simple there-and-back operations. Only Athens to Tel Aviv does not fall into this category and will use Albania-based aircraft and crew.
Adding Łódź and Bydgoszcz means that there will be 12 Polish airports involved. These are Bydgoszcz, Gdansk, Katowice, Kraków, Łódź, Lublin, Olsztyn-Mazury, Poznan, Rzeszów, Szczecin, Warsaw Chopin, and Wrocław. As Łódź is very close to Warsaw, it has not attracted Wizz Air back so far. However, the situation has changed and now, Poland’s third-largest city is joining Wizz Air.
Wizz Air Holdings Plc also aims to establish a fleet of 50 aircraft at a new unit in Saudi Arabia. “The LCC hopes to achieve the target fleet size by the end of the decade, although Chief Executive József Varádi stressed that the priority was finding a local partner,” writes ch-aviation.com. The newly established fleet in Saudi Arabia serves the purpose of developing its aviation market to rival carriers from smaller Gulf states and attracting more tourists. “The first and foremost process is to find the right partnership with local investors, and this is what we’re working on. Once this gets sorted out, then we can complete the formal process of an airline application,” Varádi said.
Hungarian Gripen fighter jets policing Baltic airspace as part of a NATO mission were scrambled six times to intercept Russian military planes in the past two months, the commander of the Baltic Air Policing mission (BAP) said at the Siauliai airbase in Lithuania on Wednesday.
The Hungarian Gripens also performed 36 fast takeoffs in training exercises and other training duties during the period of their mission, Attila Ványik, the mission’s first Hungarian chief, told a press conference.
He noted that the current mission involving 4 Gripens and 77 troops serving as part of the Quick Reaction Alert protocol with Czech support is Hungary’s third policing mission in the Baltic region, following missions in 2015 and 2019. The jets must intercept an unidentified aircraft within 15 minutes of receiving an alert, he added.
He noted that an alert for the Gripens had to be called in all six instances owing to the appearance of unidentified Russian planes, fighter jets, military transport planes and reconnaissance planes that entered international airspace around the Baltic airspace without submitting a flight-plan. These planes also failed to establish radio contact with air traffic control and had turned off their transponders, Ványik said.
Nándor Kilián, commander of the Hungarian Air Force, told MTI that unidentified Russian planes often used the narrow Baltic Sea corridor of the St Petersburg-Kaliningrad route which qualifies as international airspace.
He noted that since the Russian occupation of the Crimea in 2014, BAP had expanded the number of army bases for NATO fighter planes policing Baltic airspace to three. Besides Siauliai, there are bases in Lithuania and Estonia, he said.
Levente Magyar announced in Debrecen that the government supported the new Hungarian airline. Aeroexpress Regional has been operating its flights between Hungary and Transylvania for a week now.
All major cities of the Carpathian Basin should be accessible from Hungary by air
According to vg.hu, the Hungarian government supports the activities of Aeroexpress Regional. They will ensure that the regional transport provided by the airline is maintained in the long term – reported the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Debrecen. Their main goal is to connect all major cities of the Carpathian Basin to Hungary. In addition, they hope that Aeroexpress Regional will eventually fly to third countries. According to the Hungarian government, there is a huge demand for air connections between the regional cities. Therefore, they believe that this airline is essential to Hungarians. “Getting to the heart of Transylvania from Budapest is a one-day trip, while it can be done in an hour by plane.” – said Levente Magyar.
The Hungarian government supports the airline from the funds made available by the European Union, reports magyarnemzet.hu. The flights of Aeroexpress Regional provide an opportunity to connect Debrecen to Romania. This means that the businesses of the city will generate more income. Dániel Somogyi-Tóth, managing director of Aeroexpress Regional, emphasized that the company sees its September and October schedule as a trial period.
What do you need to know about the new Hungarian airline?
Considering the financial background, Aeroexpress Légiforgalmi Ltd is behind Aeroexpress Regional. That Ltd was established and is still owned by BASe Airlines Ltd, a company founded in 1991. BASe provides the aircraft fleet: it will transport passengers with Brazilian-made Embraer 120 ER turboprop passenger transporters with a capacity of 30 people from 5 September. As for the schedule, there are flights on Wednesdays and Fridays on the route Budapest–Cluj–Debrecen–Marosvásárhely–Debrecen–Cluj–Budapest. Moreover, ticket prices range from EUR 30 to EUR 90. And the flights are not only economical but also fast! The Budapest-Clujsvár route can be completed back and forth within one working day.
Gripen fighters of the Hungarian Air Force were scrambled to intercept a C-130 US airplane entering Hungarian airspace from Romania around noon on Wednesday, the defence ministry told MTI.
The Gripens were scrambled by NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centre because the aircraft on route to Germany’s Ramstein failed to establish radio contact with Hungarian air traffic control, the ministry said.
The Gripens established radio contact with the US airplane and after identifying it over Lake Balaton they escorted it outside Hungary’s airspace, the ministry said in a statement.
The Romanian government will assist in the repatriation of Romanian citizens stranded abroad due to the closure of the Blue Air airline, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca announced at the beginning of Wednesday’s cabinet meeting. The Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air said it would expand its presence in Romania.
The Prime Minister said that more than 2,000 Romanian citizens stranded abroad have appealed to the country’s diplomatic missions for help after the Romanian low-cost airline Blue Air was grounded on Tuesday. The government therefore intends to help repatriate its citizens in distress.
At the same time, the Prime Minister warned that the public authorities must recover from the company that caused the situation the money spent to help the company and its passengers.
At the end of the cabinet meeting, government spokesman Dan Carbunaru said that 5 million lei (HUF 408 million, EUR 1 million) had been transferred from the budget reserve fund to the Ministry of Transport to transport Romanian citizens who need it, in cooperation with the Romanian national airline Tarom and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Wizz Air’s acting network officer announced on Wednesday that the airline will launch three new flights from Bucharest, install five additional aircraft in the Romanian capital and be ready to take on Blue Air passengers. Evelin Jeckel, according to the Agerpres news agency, said that the new planes will bring the number of Wizz Air aircraft based in Bucharest to 17. The low-cost airline will increase the number of its flights on certain routes from Friday, and from the beginning of December, it will launch new flights to Prague, Athens and Larnaca.
Asked by a journalist, Evelin Jeckel admitted that the decision to expand in Bucharest was taken after Blue Air announced on Tuesday the temporary suspension of its Romanian flights. She added that they are constantly monitoring the market and are always ready to react quickly. He also said that on Tuesday evening, discounted tickets of EUR 49.99 were launched for Blue Air passengers and that if stocks are exhausted and it is deemed necessary, further discounts will be offered to those in need.
Blue Air announced on Tuesday that it will suspend all its flights to Romania from 6 to 12 September. According to the information, the flights have to be cancelled because the Ministry of the Environment has ordered the freezing of the company’s bank accounts, which means they cannot cover their daily operating costs.
Environment minister Barna Tánczos said on Tuesday that the company had accumulated a debt of 28 million lei (HUF 2.3 billion, EUR 5.7 million) to the Romanian Environmental Fund, and that it had been prosecuted.
Szeged will host an international air show featuring international military airplanes, helicopters, gliders and programmes including formation flying, skydiving and a drone show on September 9-11, the organisers said on Wednesday.
The event will open with the arrival of paragliders and hang gliders to be followed by a skydiving show on Friday afternoon. Later on Friday, shows will be performed by a US-made T-28 used as a counter-insurgency aircraft before, by the Italian “Silver Chicken” aerobatic airplane, to be followed by a show with top former Hungarian racing pilot Peter Besenyei. In the evening, the programme includes a parade of more than a hundred drones dotting the sky.
Saturday’s programmes will feature shows with an L-29 Dolphin military fighter plane, Bell AH 1 and Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm Bo 105 military helicopters and a YAK-52 with Hungarian pilot Gyula Vári.
Sunday will be dedicated to helicopters performing a formation fly in groups and a show of the Hawks of Romania.
German aerobatic champion Martin Graef will perform a show with his Extra 300S aircraft on all three days, the organisers said.
Wizz Air is Europe’s fastest-growing airline. This is evidenced by its significant expansion in Romania, among others. Five aircraft will be added to the fleet’s base in Bucharest and 3 new routes will be introduced.
Wizz Air is adding seats to its flights in the region as early as 9 September. The new Airbus A321 will arrive on 4 October. Wizz Air has also announced three new flights from Romania. From 2 December, flights will be available from Bucharest to Athens, Prague and Larnaca. Athens and Larnaca will be served 4 times a week and Prague 2 times a week.
There will also be a change in the frequency of flights. More than 30 current routes will be affected. In total, the airline will add 2.6 million seats to the Romanian market. With the expansion in Bucharest and the addition of new routes to its Romanian network, Wizz Air consolidates its leading position in the region.
“We are excited about the significant investment in Bucharest and Romania. We know how important air travel is to our passengers and we want to give them enough choice. The 13.8 million seats – offering extended discount services to 36 destinations in Romania – and the discounted tickets offered to Blue Air passengers underline Wizz Air’s commitment to the Romanian market. Currently offering nearly 200 routes from Romania, these developments and expansions will strengthen our leading position in the region,” said Evelin Jeckel, Deputy Network Manager.
Wizz Air also offers Blue Air customers discounted tickets. The Blue Air passengers concerned can book Wizz Air flights for as little as EUR 49.99 by providing their original airline ID.
After the pandemic-infused hardships, Budapest Airport bounced back and tried to minimalize cancellations and delays even in the midst of the air chaos. Now, the airport is preparing for innovations and new investments. Achieving net zero emissions by 2035 is also part of the ambitious plans.
Chris Dinsdale, CEO of Budapest Airport gave an interview to Portfolio where he talked about the most important changes at the airport.
Budapest Airport is planning to reopen Terminal 1 in 2024
Tourism is expected to continue to increase in the coming years. Therefore, the Hungarian airport has to have constant progress and continuous development. “We do not want the increase in passenger numbers to be at the expense of quality, so we want to reopen Terminal 1 in 2024, which will receive passengers until Terminal 3 is completed.” – said Chris Dinsdale. They are only waiting for the government’s approval regarding the construction permit. The 3rd Terminal investment has already started with conducting studies.
Sustainability is the central theme of all the investments
According to the CEO of Budapest Airport, sustainability is a key element of the investments. For example, they have started preparing the studies necessary for the development of the airport’s geothermal heating system. They would like to replace the gas boilers with this technology if possible. Furthermore, the planning of a 7.5 MW solar park is underway. The airport’s goal is to achieve net zero emissions by 2035 at the latest. They also undertook to achieve the highest ACI 4+ rating in terms of emissions by the end of 2023. In addition, waste management is outstanding, recycling is 70 percent, which is double the Hungarian average.
How is Budapest airport’s traffic doing?
Although coronavirus has caused difficulties for airports, Budapest Airport is now content with the airport traffic. As we have written before, passenger numbers were close to 1.3 m in July. In the summer months, the airport reached 80 percent of the pre-epidemic level, and it expects 70-75 percent for the whole year. “The number of destinations available from Budapest is almost the same compared to the pre-Covid period, with the exception of the Ukrainian and Russian destinations that were canceled due to the war in Ukraine, and in the case of long-haul flights – for example, the United States, Canada, China – you still have to wait for the return.” – said Chris Dinsdale.
Budapest Airport is launching a substantial noise insulation programme in September. In recent years, 1,500 property owners have been able to take advantage of the opportunities available in the noise protection programme. Now, they are extending this to another 2,500 households. In addition, for the first time, the owners of some properties in Kőbánya can also participate in the programme. – reports napi.hu.
Wizz Air continues its lawsuit against the Romanian national airline Tarom. Wizz Air is ready to take the airline’s place if it goes bankrupt, said Owain Jones, the company director of Wizz Air.
Tarom’s situation is critical
According to napi.hu, Tarom is waiting for almost EUR 90 million. Despite receiving government support worth EUR 56 million over two years, Tarom is still in a critical situation. In the past few days, Transport Minister Sorin Grindeanu also admitted that the airline is facing difficulties. If the court were to oblige the company to repay the previously received state subsidies, it would be the equivalent of bankruptcy.
Wizz Air continues the lawsuit after the Court of Justice of the European Union declared the EUR 36.6 million state aid granted to Tarom last year to be legal. As magyarnemzet.hu writes, the Hungarian low-cost airline’s appeal is based on the fact that Wizz Air’s lawyers found that the reasoning of the EU body was wrong in seven points. Wizz Air thinks that the justification that it would have been difficult to replace Tarom’s service, and that the competition would not have been able to take over the place of the state airline, is unfounded. However, on 4 May, the Court of Justice of the European Union rejected the warning submitted by Wizz Air.
Ready to take over
Owain Jones said that Wizz Air is ready to take over the place of Tarom if the airline goes out of business, as it did in the case of Malév. However, they would only take over certain flights. At the same time, the company director noted that, for the time being, they are expanding capacities towards holiday and Western European destinations. Tarom and Wizz Air fly a total of 13 routes in parallel. But the Romanian national airline also flies to Amman, Amsterdam, Beirut, Belgrade, Hamburg, Istanbul, Munich, Sofia, Prague and Vienna.
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.
Photo: aeroexpress-regional.hu
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.
Photo: aeroexpress-regional.hu
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.
As we reported before, their flights on the Budapest–Cluj Napoca–Debrecen–Targu Mures–Debrecen–Cluj Napoca–Budapest route are to operate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The prices will be between 30 and 90 euros. Interestingly, they will make the Cluj Napoca-Budapest return trip in only one day, which might open up options for business travellers. That route seems to be popular. The Romanian Air Connect announced to operate flights on it from mid-October weeks ago.
The airline will use Brazilian-built passenger aircraft, Embraer 120 ER. Its capacity is 30 passengers. The first is scheduled to take off for the first time on Monday. These planes were specially developed for the efficient and economical operation of short-haul regional flights. The aircraft they will use came from the Air France Regional fleet. Their cruise altitude is 8,500 metres.
Budapest Airport. Photo: FB
Vg.hu says that there is potential for regional flights. For example, the Polish LOT has a flight between Budapest and New York. However, there are no flights that connect with the neighbouring countries. Furthermore, such flights might contribute to connecting regions where public transportation is difficult. They hope that by October, their passenger number will stabilise.
Somogyi-Tóth highlighted that they would like to try whether the product of the BASe Airlines in Finland (three domestic flights per day) can be imported to Hungary. He added there should be potential in connecting the regions where Hungarians live in the neighbouring countries with Hungary. They cooperate closely with Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade because they believe that without government help, they cannot be successful at the beginning.
He said that Debrecen could be the centre of the regional flights in the Carpathian Basin. For example, he thinks it quite imaginable to start regular flights between:
Targu Mures – Lake Balaton
Cracow – Debrecen
Salzburg – Debrecen
Pécs – Cluj Napoca
Debrecen Airport. Photo: FB
Originally, they planned a Subcarpathian destination, Ungvár (Uzshorod). But they could not realise that because of the war. However, they would like to connect it with Budapest, Debrecen or even Vienna.
In the meantime, Somogyi-Tóth sees no options for domestic flights because of the developing railway and motorway connections.
Hungary’s Magnus Aircraft announced that its Fusion 212 ultralight, two-seater, small airplane powered by an internal combustion engine successfully completed a transatlantic test flight from Hungary to the United States.
Magnus Aircraft said its Fusion 212 travelled 8,000km from the Pécs-Pogány Airport, in southwest Hungary, with a flight time of over 50 hours, making it the first Hungarian-made small aircraft to do so.
The company hopes to market the Fusion 212 in the United States and said it has already acquired the necessary licence for performing pilot training programmes with it. Magnus Aircraft currently has a single prototype of the plane, they have orders for three more and hope to sell 24 annually in the US.
The company employs 100 workers and hopes to raise headcount by 15 by the end of the year. They expect to use 60 percent of their annual production capacity in 2022. Work is ongoing with Budapest’s Óbuda University to develop the eFusion light electric aircraft and Magnus’ Fusion 213 could soon debut on the market.
Magnus Aircraft said it had HUF 850 million (EUR 2.1m) revenue and a HUF 100 million (EUR 250,000) loss last year. In 2022, they hope to turn a profit with revenue multiplying.
German airline Lufthansa pilots have announced a strike on Friday. Hundreds of flights have been cancelled due to the walkout. Among the flights affected are flights to Budapest.
Lufthansa strike
The Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union representing German Lufthansa pilots has called a strike on Friday 2 September. The union announced that the strike would last all day. The strike will not only affect the Lufthansa Group’s eponymous passenger airline, but also all departing flights of its cargo subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo.
The Vereinigung Cockpit union is demanding a 5.5 percent pay rise for 2022 and an automatic inflation-linked increase from 2023. The demand concerns around 5,000 pilots. The pilots include captains and first officers. The employer said the demand was unmet, napi.hu reports.
The union’s demand would increase cockpit crew salaries by more than 40 percent over the next two years, from EUR 2.2 billion to roughly EUR 3.1 billion. According to Luthansa’s statement, this is “exaggerated even without taking into account the financial consequences of the Corona virus crisis”.
According to Lufthansa, a very favourable offer was made to the VC despite the many difficulties. This would involve a basic salary increase of €900 in two stages over a year and a half. This represents an 18 percent increase for career first officers and a 5 percent increase for pilots in the highest pay category.
Lufthansa has cancelled almost all its Friday flights from its two main bases due to the strike. Nearly 800 flights from Frankfurt and Munich are affected. The cancellations affect 130,000 passengers.
Flights from Frankfurt to Budapest and Munich to Budapest are also cancelled.
The VC represents the interests of pilots, flight engineers and flight instructors working for commercial airlines in Germany. It covers around 10,000 people. The last strike at Lufthansa was in 2017, index.hu reports.
On Tuesday, a Wizz Air flight from London to Chisinau took an unusual route. The radar image of the route clearly shows a penis.
A Wizz Air flight from London to Chisinau was detoured on Tuesday. The journey, which usually takes 2 hours 50 minutes, took 4 hours 32 minutes this time, according to FlightRadar.
A reader of telex.hu is an air traffic controller. He claims that this manoeuvre is a normal element of air traffic. The plane may have drawn a penis on the radar screen, but the pilot had nothing to do with it. The direction of entry and exit is accidental. That means it was not a deliberate drawing. In commercial aviation, pilots have a much more restricted remit. First and foremost, they have the right of executive authority over exactly which direction they fly.
On 15 May, Wizz Air left its passengers in Paris, who were supposed to fly to Budapest. The first news was that all victims were entitled to EUR 250. However, this was overturned on the grounds of weather conditions. There was a new twist: some people did receive the money, but the company said it was an administrative error.
The history
This spring, on 15 May, Wizz Air cancelled its flight from Paris Orly Airport to Budapest. Passengers were informed by SMS and e-mail that evening. The flight from the Hungarian capital could not land at Paris airport due to a major storm. As a result, the plane was diverted to Brussels.
The journalist of 24.hu would have taken the same plane home. He was stuck at the airport with nearly 200 other passengers. The Wizz Air customer service was unavailable. Airport staff helped people to get to various hotels at around 2 am. It was impossible to rebook for the next day’s flight. And Wizz Air did not send a relief flight. Many people were forced to fly home with other airlines at a much higher cost.
“When a crew’s flying time is up, the rules are clear: our colleagues can no longer fly that day. Returning home with no passengers on a plane is not ideal for us, but at least we can prepare the aircraft for the next day’s flights so that the whole schedule doesn’t fall over like a domino,” says Robert Carey, President of Wizz Air.
Wizz Air referred to EU Regulation 261/2004. Under this, if the airline cancels a flight, it is liable to pay compensation of between EUR 250 and EUR 600, depending on the destination.
Claims for compensation are supposed to be answered within 30 days, but this has been delayed in several cases, with the airline citing traffic. Wizz Air later said that as the cancellation was due to extraordinary circumstances, no compensation would be paid, blikk.hu writes.
Wizz Air spoke out about the incident. “A passenger on the flight in question received compensation for an error in the administrative system, which was not due to him, and the passenger was informed of the error by the airline. The passenger will of course not have to repay the compensation sent out in error,” the company says.
Consumer protection proceedings against the company
The Ministry of Justice has recently announced that a consumer protection investigation has been opened against Wizz Air by the Government Office in Budapest. There has been a significant increase in the number of consumer complaints lodged with the consumer protection authority against the airline. The airline did not provide information, accommodation or reply within 30 days. It also operates a premium-rate call centre in violation of the law and the rights of Hungarian consumers.
On Tuesday, the fighter aircraft of the Hungarian Defence Forces protecting the Baltic airspace were again alerted. This time the alert was again due to Russian aircraft.
For four months from 1 August, the Hungarian Defence Forces, with almost 80 soldiers and four Gripen fighter jets, will be the lead nation – together with Germany, the Czech Republic and Italy, under NATO command – in air policing the Baltic countries.
The current alert was issued for two Sukhoi Su-35 heavy fighter-bombers escorting an AN-72 aircraft from St. Petersburg to Kaliningrad, the Hungarian Defence Forces said.
The two Sukhoi Su-35 were flying in international airspace, but they did not establish radio contact with air traffic control, did not have a flight plan and did not use a transponder. The Hungarian fighters successfully intercepted and identified the Russian aircraft causing the alert at 12:50 local time at an altitude of 9,000 metres over the Baltic Sea. The Gripen aircraft then returned to their base in Lithuania.
