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.

Crankyflier blog has posted an interesting list of airlines we lost in 2008 for various reasons in his blog. See it at:

http://crankyflier.com/2008/12/31/airlines-we-lost-in-2008/