The dust has not yet settled on the sudden demise of Hungarian national carrier Malev on Friday, yet airliners are already swooping in to mop up the passenger base and available slots at the airport.

Over the weekend, Ryanair announced it would be opening a base at Budapest with four based Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The airline will operate routes to 31 destinations from the airport, starting 17th February 2012.

Now, Wizz Air has announced it is to base an additional two Airbus A320 aircraft at Budapest to boost its schedules. It will operate flights to 21 destinations, increasing weekly frequencies from 67 to 129 flights.

This will strengthen the presence of both airlines at the airport, and make it very difficult for any new or restarted national airline in Hungary to gain a foothold in the future. It also seriously diminishes the full service options for passengers.

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.

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

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!

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.

And the 43rd Ryanair base will be….  Wroclaw, Poland!

The airline already flies 15 routes from Wroclaw, but made the announcement yesterday that it will be basing a Boeing 737-800 aircraft at the airport from Summer 2012, and also opening 6 new routes.

These are:
- Bournemouth, UK
- Chania, Crete
- Malmö, Sweden
- Malta
- Paris Beauvais, France
- Venice Treviso, Italy

Moscow Domodedovo Airport is probably the most modern in Russia, and is attracting a lot of airlines. As Russian airlines modernise, they are taking on a lot of Western aircraft types, and the older Russian types are being withdrawn.

However, at Domodedovo it’s still possible to see a good array or Russian types in storage.  Paul Mitchell has recently been on a trip to the airport, and compiled a list of what you can see stored there. You can find the list under Storage Lists at the top of the page, or click this link: http://www.airportspotting.com/storage-lists/moscow-domodedovo/

We’ll try to keep this list updated, so please comment below with your updates or send an e-mail!

There are plans to build the National Aviation Center at Moscow’s Zhukovsky Airport (where the MAKS-11 air show has just been held).

This plan has been put forward by the United Aircraft Corporation, and has the blessing of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The center will become a base for research, engineering and design companies, and and it is hoped it will be open in time for the next MAKS air show in 2013.

Moscow Domodedovo Airport is planning to build a viewing gallery on top of its new terminal, which is currently under construction.

Although it won’t be ready for a few years, this is great news; many spotters travel to Moscow for the variety of aircraft and airlines that can be seen. This gallery will make it much easier to get good views of the aircraft at Domodedovo, and to take pictures.

Sadly this comes at a time when very few Russian-made aircraft still operate out of Domodedovo (or Russia in general), as Airbus and Boeing types take over.

Photo (c) Dmitry A Mottl

Baltia Airlines is a new company which has been set up in the USA and aims to become the biggest US provider of trans-Atlantic flights between Eastern Europe and the USA.

They’re currently based at New York JFK Terminal 4, and their single aircraft is being prepared for its new life with this carrier. It is a Boeing 747-200B aircraft, formerly flown by Pakistan International Airlines (and still wearing their partial livery judging by the video).

Their plan is to serve cities in Belarus, Latvia, Russia and Ukraine with their 3-class service, plus cargo. Airports in their website’s schedule include: New York JFK, St. Petersburg, Riga, Vilnius, Moscow, Tallinn, Minsk and Kiev.

To introduce their company and aircraft, Baltia Airlines has put together this video:

watch?v=bnduu6W_Zqk