Following Malev's privatization, the Hungarian government sold 99.95% of the airline to AirBridge, a Hungarian company. AirBridge is a holding company affiliated with the Russian carrier KrasAir through the AiRUnion-Krasair Group.
“The legislation is very clear,” says Gilles Gantelet, deputy head of Unit F1, which is responsible for internal market air transport agreements and multilateral relations. “If a carrier is owned more than 49% by non-EU interests and is effectively controlled by non-EU interest, it is no longer a community carrier and it cannot benefit from the single European market,” Air Transport World reported Gantelet as saying.
“Should the European Commission have doubts, we can make an inquiry and we can start an infringement procedure in the European Court of Justice against the respective government for failing to apply EU regulation,” Gantelet continued.
