Potential New Hungarian Airline Is on the Horizon

Hungary Today 2024.05.06.

Budflyer has noticed a remarkable company change. The aviation blog reported on Friday evening that a new company has appeared in the company registers, which has been given the name Hungary Cargo Airlines.

The mysterious company has already appeared on social media, and on its Facebook page it has published a logo in the colors of the Hungarian flag. It is true that the page has since been rather stripped down, but the logo is still available, writes Világgazdaság.

The appearance of Hungary Cargo Airlines is certainly unusual, but it is difficult to say at this stage what its real significance is. In any case, Budflyer has come to the conclusion that

a new Hungarian cargo airline could be established soon.

The registry court records show that the name Hungary Cargo Airlines was indeed newly registered by the Company Registry Court of Budapest Environs Regional Court at the end of March, but that it was not a new company, but a renaming of an existing one. To be precise, Universal Translink Airline Hungary (UTA), established in April 2021, took the name Hungary Cargo Airlines.

UTA was registered in Vecsés (in the Budapest metropolitan agglomeration), at BUD Cargo City, and is now one of the largest cargo operators at Budapest Airport. Gábor Varga, CEO, noted in an interview in 2022, that they have a Chinese background and their main goal is to provide the most stable and reliable air bridge between China and Europe with continuously expanding air capacities. In his November 2022 statement, Varga recalled that two years earlier, they started with the Hainan charter, which was fulfilled with preighter flights (originally commercial aircraft, but their passenger cabin is used for cargo), modified to meet the supply and demand during the COVID pandemic. Then, by the end of 2022, eight flights were operating between Zhengzhou and Budapest.

Four of these weekly flights were operated by the Hungarian government’s Wizz Air-operated A330-200F cargo aircraft. This represents a volume of 60 tons of imports and 50 tons of exports per aircraft, meaning 1,700 tons of cargo per month. The A330-200F aircraft, owned by the Hungarian State, mentioned here, could play a key role in the emergence of Hungary Cargo Airlines.

Fact

Back in September 2020, it became official that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade had purchased an Airbus A330-200F cargo aircraft from Qatar Airways. A few months later, it was revealed that the purchase price was USD 57.5 million. Then, on December 11, 2021, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced that the commercial operation of the cargo aircraft purchased following the first wave of the COVID outbreak would begin, with Wizz Air flying the aircraft three times a week between Hungary and China.

The Airbus A330-200F. Photo via Facebook/Szijjártó Péter

The only question is why UTA was renamed Hungary Cargo Airlines. Budflyer has a possible explanation: it is rumored that in the future, a new company will operate the Hungarian Airbus A330-200F instead of Wizz Air.

In fact, Hungary Cargo Airlines has already advertised for maintenance, safety manager, HR, operations, and A330 pilot positions. Admittedly, these have now been canceled, but they certainly corroborate Budflyer‘s information. However, in the end, one question still remains: will the new airline be Hungarian in name only or will the state be involved at the ownership level? The owners of Hungary Cargo Airlines are the same as those of UTA, i.e. Jiang Wu, a Hungarian citizen with voting rights of over 50%, and the Universal Translink Airlines Co. Ltd.

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Via Világgazdaság, Budflyer; Featured image via Facebook/Budapest Airport