Charter flights offered through a link with tour operators

Published: 5/26/2000

Hungary's first private charter airline Pannon Airlines Kft has made its debut becoming the only company able to offer charter flights apart from Malev in Hungary. Operating two leased Tu-154s, the airline is currently tied to tour operator HTC Kft, which is reported to have a 45% market share of the charter holiday market in Hungary. Owned partly by Tamas Havas, Managing Director of HTC, Attila Szabo and Viktor Hajdu, managing directors of the airline, and Janos Molnar, chief executive officer, Pannon is aiming to take 30-40% of the Hungarian charter market. This would represent about half of Malev's current charter business, which accounts for 7-8% of the airline's revenues. The motivation for HTC to become involved in the new venture appears to be the loss of the Malev discount of 5-7% on flights given as a result of the volume of its business. Since last season however, Malev has withdrawn the discount and placed HTC alongside other charters at the same rate, motivating HTC to promote a little competition and secure the competitive prices for flights. For HTC, the 21 flights booked with Pannon, worth a reported 105m forints, will cost the same as the previously discounted rate from Malev. The new management have not be forthcoming about the cost of setting up the new enterprise other than it was 'costly', but they have said they expect to turn a profit by the end of 2001.

Article ID: 1815