Aegean Starts New Route to Budapest, after Malev Collapse
 

Malev, the Hungarian state airline, has collapsed. Ryan Air has announced that they'll start a new small base in Budapest in two weeks, including Thessaloniki. But Athens-Budapest was a monopoly route for Malev, and there's speculation that Aegean could be starting up that route (although Olympic is another possibility).

The collapse of Malev comes soon after Spanair folded. Aegean stands to benefit if it is one of the survivors. As far as I know, Aegean is not receiving state aid and thus is not vulnerable to the same financial problems that Spanair and Malev had.

Both parties are looking at it , OA especially as it would fit nicely with their plans and add to their network along with the new ATH-TLV route recently announced. They could then offer BUD to TLV/CAI/LCA and Greek Islands Via ATH. Time will tell.

Will those routes be up for grabs straight away?

Malév is still there (just not flying) and from what I hear, they are trying to patch it up with new owners. Maybe that will never happen, but if their slots and routes are taken away on the next day, then there certainly is less and less of the company remaining to be patched up.

Is BUD to ATH and these destinations a lucrative business route? I suspect not, so any carrier who enters must plan to sell lots of deeply discounted coach seats. Can it be profitable?

The Greek Market doesn't have a lot of business heavy routes - it is a vacation destination after all. Being a monopoly carrier on a route like this should be able to support reasonable yields if served with the right amount of capacity...

A lot depends on whether you envision the BUD vacationers as being determined to go to the monopoly destination, perhaps because they own a second home in Greece, or whether they consider other destinations and look for a good deal. I suspect the latter is more common.

My experience for the last few years are that the flights xxx-BUD-SKG have often been on sale, and the the xxx-BUD-ATH not that often. That could be a small indicator that ATH is a bit better than SKG.


For the complete route network, MA's was much better balanced and had destinations "all over". That meant MA could serve customers not even going to Hungary, filling flights with both direct and connecting pax. This worked OK, as BUD is centrally located. ATH is not, and moving in on some of the BUD routes will not change that (but then again, A3 might not be interested in that strategy)



http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...ure3625-ma.jpg

A3 is much more concentrated on connection Greece with west-europe.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...ure3626-a3.jpg

Here it is, from A3's site:

Aegean Airlines to launch flights to Budapest

Wow, that was fast. Good for them ^. I hope the route does well.

Yep great news and it was certainly either A3 or OAs for the taking .

A bit out of left field (for me) Smartwings announced BUD-ATH and BUD-LCA 3 weekly and 4 weekly respectively.

And BUD-ATH is operating on the same days as A3. Exception is sunday (could be a competitive advantage for A3).

The concerning part for me on the A3 announcement, and at the risk of driving this thread OT, is the second paragraph "We are facing a winter season with the lowest demand during Aegean Airline’s lifetime". Not reassuring for the miles hoarding.

GBM