Sadly the news has come through today that Malev Hungarian Airlines has ceased flying today, following a number of days of uncertainty about the carrier’s future in light of it’s deepening financial crisis.

The airline had been placed under bankruptcy protection, but as of 6am this morning all flying had ceased. Hungary’s government had previously sought funding to help keep the national carrier going, but amid intense competition from the likes of Ryanair and Wizz Air, the market has become very hard to operate in.

Malev was founded in 1946. As of yesterday it operated a fleet of mixed Boeing 737NG models, and DHC-8 Q400′s. It had 15 Sukhoi Superjets on order.

Whether the airline will remain grounded is not known yet, but it’s definitely a sad state of affairs. Budapest Airport may see its fortunes change drastically, or see the low cost airlines move into the impressive new terminal previously used by Malev.

From 26 April 2012, Allegiant Air will open a new base at Oakland Airport, California.

It will see two MD-80 aircraft based there for scheduled operations to a number of airports. Routes include:

Billings, MO
Bozeman, MO
Kalispell, MO
Idaho Falls, ID
Medford, OR
Missoula, MO
Redmond, OR

These are in addition to the airline’s existing routes from Oakland to Bellingham, WA, Eugene, OR, and Phoenix-Mesa, AZ.

To mark the start of international scheduled services this week by ANA’s Boeing 787, I thought I’d mention a few other places you’ll be seeing the type this year. We’ll see a lot more Boeing 787 Dreamliners in our skies this year as more are delivered to airlines such as Air India, Japan Airlines and China Southern, so it’s time to start getting them in your logbooks!

Tokyo Haneda & Narita
With both ANA and JAL operating the Dreamliner this year, one of the best places to catch the type is at their Tokyo Narita and Haneda bases. This seems likely to be the place to catch the biggest concentration of Dreamliners outside of Seattle or Charleston this year.

Frankfurt International
For Europe, Frankfurt is the first place to see 787 operations with ANA from Tokyo. This was the type’s first international destination, and will be flying in every day.

Seattle
OK, so there are a few Seattle airports to see Deamliners. Most notably, Boeing’s Everett facility is the place where they’re put together. So you’ll see them quite regularly on flight test and out on the flight line. This includes the demonstrators, which is quite cool. However, ANA have also announced 787 flights to Seattle-Tacoma Airport from Tokyo, starting soon.

Boston
The US East Coast gets its first Dreamliner service from Japan Airlines in April, with non-stop service to Tokyo Narita.

Singapore
From September, Japan Airlines’ flights from Tokyo Narita will switch to 787s, increasing to 14x weekly by the end of October.

Melbourne
From October, Air India is expected to begin sending its 787s to Melbourne from its Indian bases. This will likely mark the first scheduled Dreamliner services to Australia.

Osaka Itami
Again, ANA sends its 787s to Itami. Maybe we’ll see more routes out of Osaka’s Kansai airport in the future, but for now the domestic one is the place to be.

New Delhi
Japan Airlines will start daily 787 flights to Delhi from Tokyo Narita later this year. However, if Air India receive their 787s on time, the airport is likely to get even more of the type in residence.

Moscow Domodedovo
Japan Airlines will send their Dreamliners to Moscow DME this year, replacing their 777 equipment. This sees the second known destination in Europe for the type.

Guangzhou
Despite heavy delays, China Southern are expected to take delivery of their first 787 before the Autumn. Therefore their home base of Guangzhou will become a hub for the type very soon.

There are of course more airports that the 787 flies to, such as domestic destinations within Japan. And as new frames arrive for Air India and China Southern, new routes will be announced. If you hear of any, let me know.

Ryanair has announced its 50th base will be at Paphos in Cyprus.

I didn’t see that one coming, but the airport has lost a lot of routes from Cyprus Airways recently, so it probably makes sense.

The airline will base 2 Boeing 737-800s at Paphos from April, and routes will include:

Paphos – Chania
Paphos – Frankfurt Hahn
Paphos – Kaunas
Paphos – Krakow
Paphos – London
Paphos – Memmingen
Paphos – Milan
Paphos – Oslo
Paphos – Patras
Paphos – Pisa
Paphos – Rome
Paphos – Stockholm
Paphos – Thessaloniki
Paphos – Venice Treviso

Fantastic news for those in the USA – ANA (All Nippon Airways) will start flying their Boeing 787 Dreamliners on scheduled services to the USA from April 2012.

The three routes announced are from Toyko Narita to San Jose, CA, Seattle, WA, and Washington DC Dulles.

Flights begin on 1 April 2012.

Great news for spotters over there, and I think this proves to some degree (San Jose) that the 787 will be used to try out more niche long haul routes.

As a side note, there will, however, be a delay to the planned Beijing and Frankfurt 787 services due to a delay in delivery of the third aircraft to ANA.

Ryanair continues to expand in Europe, and today announced their 49th base will be Palma de Mallorca.

They already fly 30 routes from the airport, but will be adding 17 new ones when the base takes effect from the Summer 2012 season.

The new routes are:
Aarhus, Cork, Gothenburg, Haugesund, Kaunas, Krakow, Maastricht, Malaga, Magdeburg, Marseille, Oslo, Paris Beauvais, Poznan, Santander, Santiago, Stockholm, and Tampere.

A new airline from Iceland is set to enter the low-cost stage, competing directly with Icelandair, Iceland Express and the growing number of airlines operating from Europe to the North Atlantic island.

The airline is to start operations on 1 June 2012, using a fleet of Airbus A320s.

Initial destinations from the Keflavik base are: Alicante, Basel/Mulhouse, Berlin Brandenburg, Cologne/Bonn, Copenhagen, Krakow, London Stansted, Lyon, Paris CDG, Stuttgart, Warsaw and Zurich.

You’ll notice most of these destinations are already strongholds of other carriers on the route.

Keep an eye on their website: http://www.wowair.is/

Sadly Astraeus Airlines ceased operations this week due to financial problems and the lack of work over winter months.

There may be hope, as celebrity pilot and Marketing Director for the airline – Bruce Dickinson (of Iron Maiden fame) – has vowed to save it in some form, and secure the jobs and operating style of the airline.

But in the meantime, it has left Iceland Express in the lurch as they used Boeing 737s of Astraeus on a number of routes. Therefore, they have drafted in the help of Holidays Czech Airlines and their Airbus A320s, which will be operating on routes out of Keflavik to places such as Copenhagen, London Gatwick, Alicante, Oslo, New York, Berlin and Warsaw.

I don’t yet know whether this is an interim measure, or if the deal will last indefinitely, but it at least gives those of you at those airports something interesting to look out for!

When Berlin’s new Brandenburg Airport opens on 3rd June 2012, it will be blessed with 29 new routes from national carrier Lufthansa – a clear sign that the airport will bring about a new era for air travel to the city.

Today, Lufthansa’s network to Berlin Tegel Airport is limited to domestic and a few European services. However, when the airline moves to the new airport on its opening day, it will introduce 130 new flights each week. New destinations include:

I just read something on the great Anna.aero site that really interested me. But it also pleased me because it confirmed something I’d noticed without paying too much attention. Turkish Airlines (THY) are on the up – big style!

I’ve been occasionally aware lately of how the airline has been expanding its route network, adding more frequencies and destinations, and upgrading its fleet. I hadn’t even realised that they had another 60 Boeing 737-800s on order – that’s going to be a massive fleet of the type when all are delivered.

It seems that Turkish want to leverage their position to take on the big guns in the Middle East (Emirates, Qatar and Etihad) by turning Istanbul Ataturk Airport into a staging post between East and West, much like we see in Dubai, Doha etc. But whilst the big carriers use mainly larger widebody fleets (especially Emirates), Turkish sees its geographical location as a much better place to operate the smaller Boeing 737-800s from an increasing number of European, Middle Eastern and African destinations, feeding through its Istanbul hub.

“Right now, Turkish serves around 70 cities in Europe, but with over 60 737-800s on order, this will double” promised Dr Temel Kotil, President and CEO Turkish Airlines, in a recent interview with anna.aero.

And to prove the point, Turkish has remained more profitable through the recession, and gone from 10 million passengers per year in 2006, to 30 million today. It will soon take over British Airways as third biggest European carrier.

So it’s probably time to start thinking about what kind of airport Istanbul Ataturk will be for the enthusiast in years to come. Plenty of red tails, for sure. But plenty of action as well.