Airline collapse leaves 7,000 travellers stranded

Malev – the state-owned Hungarian airline – has grounded all its flights, leaving more than 7,000 people stranded this morning.

The airline, which had been selling tickets yesterday, has debts of around 60 billion forints (£170 million) and has been unable to find new investors.

It stopped all flight at 5am GMT yesterday morning.

The airline is a member of the Oneworld airline alliance that also includes American Airlines and British Airways.

Managing director Lorant Limburger said that in the past few days its partners suddenly lost trust in Malev and began demanding advance payments for their services.

“This accelerated the cash outflow to such an extent that by today the airline’s situation has become unsustainable,” Mr Limburger said in a statement announcing the shutdown. “We apologize to all our passengers.”

Around 3,500 passengers in Hungary and 3,700 abroad had been expecting to board Malev flights. Malev said it has contacted other airlines in search of help.