Sólyom Hungarian Airways

The first aeroplane in the air

Sólyom Hungarian Airways Ltd. (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈʃoːjom]) is a Hungarian airline established in 2013. It has its head office in Budapest at Liszt Ferenc International Airport. The airline was founded after Malév Hungarian Airlines, the former flag carrier of Hungary which ceased operations in February 2012.

Operations were due to start in August 2013^[2] but at a press conference on 18 August, the CEO, József Vágó, announced that charter flights would begin in September and scheduled flights in October 2013. As of 12 December 2013 flights are yet to take place with no timetabling information published on the official website. Sólyom was criticized for "unnecessarily increasing expectations" through their large quantity of press releases and coverage^[3] because of the continual lack of progress in commencing operations.

On October 10, 2013 the management of the company told to all their employees that they were unable to pay the salaries which were due to be transferred on the same day. They also said that they were unable to finalize the deal with potential investors from Oman.^[4]

Sale to Charity March

After a widely publicised bankruptcy,^[5] on October 30 communications director Tamás Hévizi called for speculation to die down while the appropriate permits were obtained^[6] but unexpectedly on November 10, 2013 Sólyom was sold by managing director Hurtyák Róbert to new owners "Charity March" (a Hungarian organization based in Africa) for three million forint.^[7] Charity March's head, Tamás Welsz, said that talks about the takeover had been ongoing for a month. In an interview the former owner of Sólyom, Lucsik János, said he did not know Welsz and had only met him twice in his life. He also said that he did not know about the sale until it had happened and that he was unable to dispute Hurtyák's decision to sell the company when Lucsik János himself had made a decision to declare insolvency.^[8] Flights were expected to launch by December with the two existing planes^[9][10][11] but further issues arose when it emerged that Welsz and his wife were wanted by both Panama and Interpol on charges of fraud and forgery of legal documents and traveled back to Hungary during a travel ban.^[12][13]

Finances

The airline has outstanding rent on their office at Liszt Ferenc airport, with the airport threatening to cancel Sólyom's tenancy contract if the rent remains unpaid by January 2014.^[14] Suppliers who paid to register on Sólyom's supplier database (amount dependent on company size) are yet to have a single order placed with them as of 12 December 2013 with doubts of whether they will be reimbursed, or if they will have orders placed with them.^[15]

Destinations

The airline has revealed its planned destinations from Budapest as follows: Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Milan, Paris and Stockholm.^[16] By the end of 2014, the airline seeks to add flights to North America and China.^[17]

Fleet

The airline currently has two leased Boeing 737-500 aircraft, HA-SHA is airworthy and HA-SHC lacks engines.

Under their original ownership Sólyom's plans included 50 airplanes in 2017, including 10 regional and 10 intercontinental aircraft.^[18]

References

v t e Airlines of Hungary Current Budapest Aircraft Service CityLine Hungary Farnair Hungary Sólyom Hungarian Airways Travel Service Wizz Air Defunct ABC Air Hungary Aviaexpress Malert Malév