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71-456: Until 1945, Deutsche Luft Hansa had served as German flag carrier . Following the end of World War II and the subsequent allied occupation of Germany , all aircraft in the country were seized and the airline was liquidated. In 1954, a West German company acquired the Lufthansa trademark. In 1955, Deutsche Lufthansa was founded as a rival East German flag carrier. It soon became obvious that

142-401: A hub at Tegel, reportedly considered operating flights to Greece without pay to allow the airline to compete with Interflug. Interflug signed an agreement with Turkish Airlines giving the two airlines exclusive rights to offer dedicated flights for Turkish Gastarbeiter to and from West Germany and West Berlin. In the 1980s, Interflug set up a partnership with KLM for a joint operation on

213-544: A member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). As a consequence of German reunification on 3 October 1990, Interflug came under the administration of the Treuhandanstalt , along with all other East German state property. As no buyers could be found, the liquidation of Interflug, which had 2,900 employees and 20 aircraft at the time, was announced on 7 February 1991. The airline

284-573: A number of experimental and survey missions, most notably for developing the best airborne crossing of the South Atlantic, and during the Third German Antarctica Expedition in 1938–39, when two Dornier Wal aircraft performed a photographic survey of 350,000 square kilometres, an area which became known as New Swabia . With the outbreak of the war on 1 September 1939 all civilian flight operations of Luft Hansa came to an end, and

355-524: Is well regarded in Germany to this day. The airline was created by the merger of Deutscher Aero Lloyd, formerly Deutsche Luft-Reederei (1917 to 1923) , and Junkers Luftverkehr (c. 1919) in 1926. The two companies, Germany's largest airlines at the time, were forced to merge by the German government, while all other airlines were shut down. This reorganization was intended to reduce the amount of financial support

426-465: The 1970s energy crisis and increasing fuel prices, Interflug gradually dismantled its domestic route network. The last scheduled domestic flight, to transport prisoners from East Berlin to Erfurt , took place in April 1980. During the 1980s, Interflug's aging fleet caused increasing difficulties: fuel efficiency was inferior to that of contemporary western airliners, and noise pollution regulations meant

497-622: The Chinese transport ministry, granting Luft Hansa a monopoly position for mail transport between Germany and China, as well as access to the Chinese market. To this end, the Shanghai - Nanjing - Beijing route was launched in the following year using Junkers W 34 specially deployed there. A record was set in 1930 when the mail route from Vienna to Istanbul (with stopovers in Budapest , Belgrad and Sofia )

568-682: The Iron Curtain , Lufthansa and Interflug were granted special permits to operate flights between Leipzig and West Germany. In 1986, Lufthansa and Interflug applied for joint traffic rights for year-round scheduled intra-German flights over the Iron Curtain, which were initially rejected by the Western Allies (likely due to concerns that their unique market position for flights to and from Berlin might be weakened), and only granted in August 1989. Interflug

639-521: The Lufthansa name). Its staff, aircraft fleet, and route network were transferred to Interflug, which henceforth served as the East German flag carrier. As a state-owned airline, Interflug and its approximately 8,000 employees were under the control of the National Defense Council , in supreme command of the East German armed forces. The majority of Interflug pilots were reserve officers of

710-859: The National People's Army (and as such were required to be members of the Socialist Unity Party ), and its aircraft could be requisitioned for military purposes at any time. Klaus Henkes , who became General Director of the airline in 1978, had previously served as General of the East German Air Force . Applicants for flight attendant jobs had to be approved of by the Stasi , which assessed their political reliability , in an attempt to minimize espionage and defection to Western countries. Interflug crews who associated with employees of airlines from non-socialist countries risked suspension. Each flight crew

781-595: The Perestroika movement, commercial airliners were exempted from the trade embargo in 1988. Malév Hungarian Airlines also bought Boeing aircraft in 1988, and later that year, Interflug placed an order for three Airbus A310 long-haul aircraft, worth DM 420 million. The deal was secured with the support of Franz Josef Strauss , then Minister-President of Bavaria, chairman of the Airbus supervisory board and responsible for West German loans to East Germany. The first Airbus A310

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852-632: The SkyTeam alliance, and MALÉV's codeshare agreements with several SkyTeam carriers, Malév joined Oneworld on 29 March 2007. On 12 July 2007, Lloyd Paxton was appointed CEO of MALÉV. Paxton replaced János Gönci, who remained on the board of directors as an adviser. Paxton was the first MALÉV CEO to come from the airline industry. He had been with British Airways for over 35 years and more recently with Air Astana . Two months later, on 14 September 2007, Lloyd Paxton resigned as CEO of MALÉV, replaced by Péter Leonov. In January 2009, Ballo Anatoly Borisovich became

923-538: The Treaty of Versailles . This allowed the route network to be quickly expanded to cover major European cities. The initial fleet consisted of 162 aircraft, nearly all of them outdated World War I types, and the company had 1,527 staff. The most important airfield for DLH was Berlin Tempelhof . From there a Fokker F.II took off on 6 April 1926 for the first scheduled flight to Zürich via Halle , Erfurt and Stuttgart . In

994-701: The Treuhandanstalt to the Federal Republic of Germany and became part of the German Air Force , used for VIP transport of high-ranking politicians like the German president or chancellor . Several former Interflug aircraft have been preserved in different places in Germany. As the national airline of East Germany from 1963 to 1991, Interflug operated scheduled passenger flights to the following destinations. As an East German state-owned company, Interflug had

1065-503: The 1960s and 1970s it was in Vörösmarty tér 5. ( District V ) , and in the 1990s it was in Roosevelt tér 2 . The airline signed a lease agreement in the spring of 2011 with Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport agreeing to relocate its headquarters to three office buildings between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 in the airport by the summer of 2012, but these plans were cancelled due to

1136-610: The 1965 acquisition of Ilyushin Il-18 turbine propeller airliners, and the subsequent 1968 purchase of jet-powered Tupolev Tu-134s from the Soviet Union , across Europe and the Middle East. In the summer of 1974, the Tupolev-154 was brought into scheduled service. Even before the political changes of 1989 and the arrival of democracy, Malév had begun phasing out its Soviet-era planes with

1207-562: The Budapest- Toronto and Budapest-New York-JFK routes were suspended in mid-November 2007. Then, on 23 July 2008, MALÉV announced the cancellation of the New York and Toronto flights; these had been operated since the early 1990s. Malév Hungarian Airlines had codeshare agreements with the following airlines, beside oneworld members: MALÉV's fleet consisted of the following aircraft at the time of its shutdown on 3 February 2012: Over

1278-591: The East Berlin- Amsterdam route. Of the six weekly flights, two were operated by KLM's Fokker F28 Fellowships , and four by Interflug's Tu-134s and Il-62s. As neither airline was allowed to cross the intra-German border, the KLM flights were routed via Denmark , and Interflug used a southern routing over Czechoslovakia . During the annual Leipzig Trade Fair , at that time considered the most important meeting place for businesspeople and politicians from both sides of

1349-477: The East German airline would likely lose a lawsuit over the use of the Lufthansa branding. As a result, Interflug was set up on 18 September 1958 as a "backup" company, initially intended to complement the East German aviation industry by operating chartered flights. In 1963, the East German Lufthansa was liquidated, officially due to poor profitability (though this step foreclosed the imminent stripping of

1420-475: The Eurasia Corporation had to be shut down following an intervention by the Chinese government . Syndicato Condor was nationalised and renamed Cruzeiro do Sul in 1943, in an attempt to erase its German roots. The last scheduled flight of Deutsche Luft Hansa – from Berlin to Munich took place on 21 April 1945, but the aircraft crashed shortly before the planned arrival. Another (non-scheduled) flight

1491-660: The Hungarian State Privatization Company ÁPV Plc. ( Állami Privatizációs és Vagyonkezelő Rt. ) owned 99.5% of Malév shares. The other 0.5% were in the hands of small shareholders. József Váradi was CEO from 1999 to 2003. He later founded Wizz Air . ÁPV Plc. repeatedly tried to privatise Malév, finally selling it to AirBridge Zrt . AirBridge acquired 99.9% of the airline in February 2007. It had 1,785 staff members, as of 31 December 2007. Despite Czech Airlines ' offer to sponsor Malév as an associate member of

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1562-503: The Middle East. Politically, the company leaders were linked to the rising Nazi Party ; an aircraft was made available to Adolf Hitler for his campaign for the 1932 presidential election free of any charge. The Nazi party used footage of those flights for their propaganda efforts and gained an advantage in being able to hold events featuring Hitler in different places in far quicker succession than other parties which relied largely on rail transport. Erhard Milch , who had served as head of

1633-658: The Russian brothers Alexander and Boris Abramovich acquired 49% of AirBridge Zrt as part of a privatisation program of the Hungarian government. After the AiRUnion alliance of the Abramovich brothers went bankrupt in 2009, Vnesheconombank took over the Abramovich stake. The government of Hungary re-nationalized the airline on 26 February 2010, after Malev experienced changes in ownership and financial difficulties. The government held 95% of

1704-539: The air traffic at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport . In 2011 about 40% of the revenues at Budapest airport originated from Malév operations, and during that year the airline served 3.2 million passengers. MALÉV's head office was located inside the Lurdy House ( Lurdy Ház ) in Budapest., an office and shopping complex that opened in 1998. Previously the airline head office was located elsewhere in Budapest. In

1775-646: The aircraft fleet came under command of the Luftwaffe , along with most staff. The company focused on aircraft maintenance and repair. There were still scheduled passenger flights within Germany and to occupied or neutral countries, but bookings were restricted and served the demands of warfare. During the later years of the war, most passenger aircraft were converted to military freighters. The Luft Hansa co-operations in foreign countries were gradually dismantled: Deruluft ceased to exist in March 1940, and by November of that year,

1846-534: The aircraft when flying over its destination. In 1950, Malév's operating base moved from Budaörs to the newly opened airport at Ferihegy , where it remained. On 25 November 1954, Hungary acquired all the Soviet shares of MASZOVLET, and renamed the company MALÉV. Ilyushin Il-14 twin piston-engined transport aircraft were acquired in the late 1950s. Operations were expanded, with flights extending to nearby countries and, following

1917-482: The airline had to pay higher landing fees and was even banned from operating at some airports. With some exceptions, western-built airliners (most notably those produced by Boeing , McDonnell Douglas , and Airbus ) could not be delivered to Soviet bloc countries because of the CoCom embargo. Following a deal between Boeing and LOT Polish Airlines for the purchase of six Boeing 767 aircraft, and in order to acknowledge

1988-513: The airline since 1926, was appointed by Hermann Göring to be head of the Aviation Ministry when Hitler came to power in 1933; Milch had been a member of the Nazi party since 1929, and was later convicted of war crimes. According to a leading scholar of the history of German aviation, from this point, "Lufthansa served as a front organization for armament, which took place secretly until 1935 - it

2059-569: The airline while AirBridge Zrt held 5%. AirBridge Zrt was 51% owned by Kálmán Kiss and Magdolna Költő, two Hungarian individuals (very likely straw owners ), and 49% owned by Boris Abramovich. Prior to 26 February 2010, AirBridge Zrt held 99.95% of Malév and minor shareholders held 0.05%. MALÉV Hungarian Airlines offered scheduled services to about fifty destinations in Europe and the Middle East; charter flights were also flown. Flights to Africa, East Asia, and North America had been terminated. Services on

2130-542: The chairman. On 18 March 2009, the Russian state-owned Vnesheconombank took a minority stake of 49% in AirBridge Zrt which held the shares of the struggling airline. The majority, 51%, remained in Hungarian ownership. The managing control would be taken by Russia's Aeroflot – Russian Airlines . Martin Gauss , former CEO of DBA and Cirrus Airlines as well as a Boeing 737 pilot was elected as CEO on 15 April 2009. During

2201-599: The company. The European Commission ordered MALÉV to repay various forms of state aid received from 2007 to 2010, totalling 38 billion forints (€130 m; $ 171 m), a sum equal to its entire 2010 revenue. At the end of January 2012, MALÉV announced that it could no longer fund its own operations, and requested more subsidies from the Hungarian government. After having two planes seized at foreign airports by creditors, MALÉV immediately ceased all flight activity on 3 February 2012, after 66 years of continuous operation. The airline's total debts were 60 billion forints (US$ 270.5 million) at

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2272-500: The country by the United States for political reasons. On 1 April 1939, Deutsche Luft Hansa launched scheduled transatlantic flights to Natal, Rio Grande do Norte and Santiago de Chile using Fw 200 aircraft, a route which had previously been operated by Syndicato Condor . With Bangkok , Hanoi and Taipeh , further Asian destinations were added to the route network. During the 1930s, Luft Hansa aircraft had also been deployed on

2343-601: The first aircraft not manufactured in Germany were introduced into the Luft Hansa fleet: two Boeing 247s and one Douglas DC-2 . The grip on the domestic South American markets was further tightened in 1937, when the Sociedad Ecuatoriana de Transportes Aéreos (SEDTA) and Lufthansa Perú were founded as Luft Hansa co-operations in Ecuador and Peru respectively, operating Junkers W 34 aircraft. The Middle Eastern network

2414-460: The flight network of leading European airlines of that time and vice versa. The agreements were with air lines including Aerotransport , Ad Astra Aero , Adria Aerolloyd , Aero Oy , Air Union , Balair , CIDNA , CSA , DDL , Imperial Airways , KLM , Lignes Aeriennes Latécoère , LOT , ÖLAG , Malert , SABENA , SANA , SGTA , and Ukrpovitroshliakh , as well as Syndicato Condor from Brazil and SCADTA from Colombia . During that period,

2485-424: The following European destinations saw scheduled passenger flights: Due to the war and the de facto end of commercial air transport in Germany, Luft Hansa operated scheduled passenger flights only on some domestic trunk routes and international services on a limited number of routes to occupied or Axis -affiliated countries. These routes deteriorated during the war as Germany came closer to defeat. As of 1940/41,

2556-524: The following destinations were served. At that time, interline agreements were in force with Iberia , Aeroflot , Malert , LARES (Romania), Aero Oy (Finland), DDL ( occupied Denmark ), ABA (Sweden), and CSA ( occupied Czechoslovakia ). Additionally, there were scheduled sea plane flights along the Norwegian coast (from Trondheim to Kirkenes ), which was then part of the Atlantic Wall . Over

2627-399: The government provided to the airline industry. Like many other countries, Germany subsidized the airlines, which also gave the German government control over them. The stylised flying crane symbol predates Luft Hansa and had been used by DLR and Deutscher Aero Lloyd. The foundation of the airline coincided with the lifting of restrictions on commercial air operations imposed on Germany by

2698-520: The highly unprofitable company to secure a share of the German air traffic market, especially in Berlin. In early March 1990, Lufthansa signed a letter of intent to acquire 26 percent of Interflug, but the offer was blocked by Germany's Federal Cartel Office . Plans for a takeover by British Airways did not materialize either (the UK airline instead founded Deutsche BA in 1992). On 1 July 1990, Interflug became

2769-947: The important role of securing foreign currency reserves, as the East German mark was considered a weak currency . For most of its existence, Interflug was not a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and could therefore significantly undercut the ticket prices of other European carriers. From the 1970s, more effort was put into operating chartered flights to Mediterranean and Black Sea holiday resorts, many of which specifically catered to West Germans. (Travel restrictions applied to East Germans). Starting in that period, Interflug gained traffic rights to several destinations in Western Europe. All these flights could be booked at travel agencies in West Berlin and West Germany, which had signed sale contracts with Interflug. To simplify

2840-594: The introduction of the airline's first Western -designed aircraft, a Boeing 737-200 on 18 November 1988. With that, Malév was the second airline in the then-communist COMECON countries of Central Europe to operate a Western-built aircraft. ( TAROM – Romanian Airlines started operating the BAC 1-11 in 1968 and the Boeing 707 in 1974. LOT – Polish Airlines was the third with its Boeing 767-300 aircraft launched in April 1989). The company's logo, which turned out to be its last,

2911-588: The mail delivery time between Europe and North America. Both the Bremen and her sister ship Europa launched mail planes on their scheduled North Atlantic crossings until 1935. Even though the early years of the decade saw a difficult financial situation due to the Great Depression , Deutsche Luft Hansa further expanded its international route network in South America, and launched scheduled flights from Germany to

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2982-471: The management of Martin Gauss, MALÉV reached a load factor above industry average among "traditional" airlines, comparable of that of low-cost airlines. One of the reasons of the departure of Martin Gauss as CEO of MALÉV was the benefit ceiling established by the newly elected government, led by Viktor Orbán , in 2010, where a ceiling of €8000 gross monthly salary (approx €5000 net) was set for all managers, governing state-owned companies. In 2009, Malév became

3053-637: The national airline after the war. Maszovlet was founded on 29 March 1946, as the Hungarian-Soviet Civil Air Transport Joint Stock Company ( Magyar-Szovjet Polgári Légiforgalmi Rt. also known as MASZOVLET ), as a merger between Malert , Maefort and the Hungarian part of Aeroflot . The initial fleet consisted of 21-seat Li-2 passenger aircraft (the Soviet-licensed DC-3 ) and 3-seat Po-2 "taxis", used for precision air mail : sacks of mail were dropped from

3124-619: The newly founded East German national airline operated under the same name but, having lost a lawsuit with the West German company, it was liquidated and replaced by Interflug . From 1926 until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Deutsche Luft Hansa built up an extensive network centred on its base at Berlin Tempelhof Airport covering many German cities and towns, as well as the major European cities. There were early interline agreements which granted Luft Hansa passengers access to

3195-638: The newly founded Iberia in Spain its longest scheduled route was 2,100 kilometres from Berlin to Madrid (though with several stopovers). The establishment of Syndicato Condor in Brazil served the airline's interests in South America where there were important German minorities at that time. The first east–west crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean (from Baldonnel Aerodrome in Ireland to Greenly Island, Canada )

3266-408: The night train connection was discontinued some years later. During its first year, the airline operated more than six million flight kilometres, transporting a total of 56,268 passengers and 560 tons of freight and mail. Over the following years, the domestic network grew to cover all the important cities and towns of Germany. More international routes were added through co-operation agreements. With

3337-577: The old airline and claims DLH's legacy. For this reason it is controversial in the historical reappraisal to what extent the modern Lufthansa should confess to crimes committed by the old airline. Deutsche Luft Hansa was founded on 6 January 1926 in Berlin . The name of the company means "German Hansa of the Air". The Hansa or Hanseatic League dominated maritime trade in the Baltic Sea area for hundreds of years, and

3408-462: The prototype phase and was abandoned in 1961. In 1969, the Tupolev Tu-134 was introduced, the first jet airliner operated by Interflug, used on European routes. The long-range Il-62 joined the fleet in 1971. That same year, the number of Interflug passengers reached 1 million. At its peak, Interflug flew to destinations such as Havana , Cuba , Singapore and Conakry , Guinea . As a result of

3479-519: The same year, Deutsche Luft Hansa acquired a stake in Deruluft , a joint German- Soviet airline, and launched non-stop flights from Berlin to Moscow , which was then regarded as an exceptionally long distance. Shortly after that flights to Paris were commenced. Deutsche Luft Hansa was one of the first airlines to operate night flights, the first of which connected Berlin with Königsberg using Junkers G 24 aircraft. This route proved so successful that

3550-458: The scheduled European routes and a total of 254,713 passengers and 5,288 tons of mail transported. From 1936 Deutsche Luft Hansa carried out route proving flights to carry mail across the North Atlantic. This service was intended to replace the mail planes launched by catapult from trans-Atlantic steamers. However this never materialized, as German planes were denied the right to carry mail into

3621-588: The second airline outside of the former Soviet Union – after the Italian ItAli Airlines  – to order the Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 , when it signed a letter of intent for 15 planes with an option for 15 more. News organizations speculated that the deal was influenced by minority owner Vneshekonombank and partner airline Aeroflot. The order was suspended in 2011, one year before Malév ceased operations. The airline

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3692-613: The shutdown. The airline was privatised in the 1990s. In December 1993, ÁPV Plc. sold 40,316 "A" series shares to the airline's employees. In 1998 ÁPV Plc. held 64.089% of the company (4,929,954 shares), Alitalia-Linee Aeree Italiane held 30% (2,307,693 shares), Simest held 5% (384,615 shares), private entities held 0.333% (25,577 shares), and several local governments held the rest of the company. Local governments with stakes in Malév were Agárd , Balatonlelle , Budapest , Debrecen , Budapest District 5 , and Budapest District 18 . In 2007

3763-470: The time of shutdown. The shutdown occurred at 6 am Western European Time on 3 February 2012. On 14 February 2012, the Metropolitan Court of Budapest declared MALÉV Ltd. insolvent. Hitelintézeti Felszámoló Nonprofit Kft. (Credit Institutional Liquidator Nonprofit Ltd.) received the appointment as the liquidator of MALÉV Ltd. Before its closure, the airline had 2,600 employees and almost half of

3834-739: The trans-Atlantic leg These were replaced by the Dornier Do 18 in 1936 making operations in non-visual conditions possible. The European network saw the introduction of the Junkers G.38 (at that time the largest passenger aircraft in the world) on the Berlin- London route via Amsterdam , as well as the Junkers Ju 52/3m and Heinkel He 70 , which allowed for faster air travel. This was promoted by so-called " Blitz Services" (German: Blitzstrecken ) between Berlin , Hamburg , Cologne and Frankfurt . In 1935,

3905-591: The transfer of passengers from West Berlin to and from Schönefeld Airport, a dedicated border crossing checkpoint was inaugurated at Waltersdorfer Chaussee , and scheduled shuttle buses were operated from the Central Bus Terminal in the Westend locality. By the early 1980s, low Interflug ticket prices led to a severe decline in holiday flights at Berlin Tegel Airport in West Berlin. Pilots at Pan Am , which had

3976-412: The years of its existence, Deutsche Luft Hansa operated the following aircraft types: Mal%C3%A9v Hungarian Airlines MALÉV Ltd. ( Hungarian : Malév Zrt. ), which did business as MALÉV Hungarian Airlines ( Hungarian : Magyar Légiközlekedési Vállalat , abbreviated MALÉV , pronounced [ˈmɒleːv] ), was the flag carrier of Hungary from 1946 until 2012. Its head office

4047-414: Was renationalised in February 2010, with Hungarian Government state holding company MNV acquiring a 95% stake in the airline. The remaining 5% remained with AirBridge. In December 2010, the European Commission began an investigation into illegal government subsidies of Malév. On 9 January 2012, the European Union considered the state aid received by MALÉV illegal and ordered Hungary to recover it from

4118-426: Was a German airline. It served as flag carrier of the country during the later years of the Weimar Republic and throughout Nazi Germany , when it had close links to the Nazi Party . Although Deutsche Luft Hansa was the forerunner of modern German airline Lufthansa (founded in 1953) and both airlines share the same logo, there is no legal connection between the two. However, the new Lufthansa took over staff from

4189-400: Was an air force in disguise." The historian Norman Longmate reported that during its peacetime flights in the 1930s, the airline had secretly photographed the entire British coastline as preparation for a possible invasion. A key interest of Deutsche Luft Hansa at that time was the reduction of mail delivery times. In 1930, the Eurasia Corporation was established as a joint-venture with

4260-453: Was assigned a political officer who gave political lectures during flights. The airline's route network and fleet of Soviet-built aircraft grew significantly in the 1960s. The Ilyushin Il-18 turboprop airliner became the workhorse of Interflug's short-haul flights during that period. The company had been the intended primary operator of the Baade 152 , an early jet airliner constructed in East Germany. Its development never went beyond

4331-456: Was completed in only 24 hours. By comparison, the first transatlantic passenger flight by the airline (from Warnemünde to New York City using a Dornier Wal flying boat ) took roughly one week. After several years of testing, a scheduled postal route between Europe and South America was inaugurated in 1934. This was the first regularly scheduled airline service across an ocean in the world. Wal flying boats were used, catapult launched for

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4402-474: Was delivered to Interflug on 26 June 1989. The East German crews for the new aircraft type were trained in West Germany; aircraft maintenance was also performed there. The A310 enabled non-stop flights to Cuba (flights had previously required a fuel stop at Gander International Airport in Canada). Following the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 and the subsequent political upheaval in East Germany, several airlines expressed interest in buying parts of

4473-441: Was designed by graphic designer László Zsótér ( DLA ) in 1986 and consecutively adopted during the following years. The last Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft was withdrawn from service in 2001. In 2003, MALÉV began replacing its Boeing 737 Classic aircraft with 737 Next-Generation planes. It then ran a fleet of 18 Boeing 737 Next Generations , as well as 4 Bombardier Dash 8 Q-400s for short-haul routes. From 1999 to 2007,

4544-443: Was expanded with the launch of the Berlin- Baghdad - Tehran route in the same year. In 1938 the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 long range aircraft was introduced making it possible to fly non-stop between Berlin and New York and from Berlin to Tokyo with only one intermediate stopover. This last year prior to the outbreak of World War II turned out to be the most successful one in the history of the airline, with 19.3 million flight kilometres on

4615-689: Was in Budapest , with its main hub at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport . The airline flew to over 50 cities in 34 countries with a fleet of 22 aircraft. Malév joined the Oneworld alliance on 29 March 2007. On 3 February 2012, Malév ceased operations and on 14 February 2012 was declared insolvent by the Metropolitan Court of Budapest. Hungarian civil aviation was pioneered by airlines such as Aero Rt. (founded 1910), Magyar Aeroforgalmi Rt. (Maefort) and Magyar Légiforgalmi Rt. ( MALÉRT (mɒleːrt) ). The widespread devastation of World War II forced these airlines to suspend airline service in 1940–44, and they were ultimately replaced by Maszovlet as

4686-404: Was made by the Luft Hansa pilot Hermann Köhl , Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld and the Irish pilot James Fitzmaurice using the Junkers W 33 aircraft Bremen in April 1928. The airline launched scheduled multi-leg flights to Tokyo . A Heinkel HE 12 aircraft was launched (by catapult ) off the NDL liner Bremen during her maiden voyage crossing the Atlantic in 1929, shortening

4757-407: Was particularly used from 1940 to 1942. Forced laborers were used to install and maintain radar systems and to assemble, repair, and maintain aircraft, including military aircraft. Forced laborers were lodged in barracks run by Luft Hansa on the Tempelhof site and elsewhere in Berlin were surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by authorities with machine guns; sanitation in these camps, was poor, as

4828-473: Was performed the next day, from Berlin to Warnemünde , which marked the end of flight operations. Following the surrender of Germany and the ensuing Allied occupation of Germany , all aircraft in the country were seized and Deutsche Luft Hansa was dissolved. The remaining assets were liquidated on 1 January 1951. During World War II, Deutsche Luft Hansa employed more than 10,000 forced laborers, including many children, from occupied countries; forced Jewish labor

4899-403: Was the level of medical care and nutrition. In 2012, a team of archaeologists excavated the site of the camp run by Luft Hansa on Tempelhof airport. Lufthansa , today's German flag carrier , acquired the name and logo of the 1926–1945 airline upon its foundation in 1953 and claims DLH's history as its own. However, there is no legal link between the two companies. Between 1955 and 1963,

4970-529: Was then able to launch flights on the Leipzig- Düsseldorf route, while Lufthansa began serving the Frankfurt -Leipzig leg. In 1990, Interflug added flights from Dresden to Hamburg and Cologne . Over the years, Interflug operated the following aircraft types on its commercial flights: [REDACTED] Media related to Interflug at Wikimedia Commons Deutsche Luft Hansa Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G. (from 1933 styled as Deutsche Lufthansa and also known as Luft Hansa , Lufthansa , or DLH )

5041-528: Was then dismantled. The last commercial flight (on the Berlin- Vienna -Berlin route, using a Tu-134) took place on 30 April 1991. Following the liquidation, a group of former Interflug employees acquired five of the company's Ilyushin Il-18 airliners and set up Il-18 Air Cargo , which soon became known as Berline , operating chartered cargo and leisure flights out of Schönefeld Airport. The company went bankrupt and ceased operations in 1994. The three Airbus A310 purchased by Interflug in 1988 were handed over by

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