jabird,
I'm not familiar with the precise problems that caused MALEV so much debt but, only a few years ago, I became aware that the national carrier of Romania was/is lumbered with so many staff, compared against size of fleet, that they were/are the subject of ridicule ..... and once such staffing levels are in place, particularly amongst Flight Operations personnel, they can be difficult to shift.
Sabena Flight Operations personnel had such a bad reputation that many an operator wouldn't touch them with a bargepole in the years that followed, SN Airlines replaced Sabena with, I'm guessing, a much leaner operation, gone is all the Flight Operations seniority, inflated salaries and, perhaps, troublemakers and/or militancy and, since merging with Virgin Express, has made a go of it.
One could say that such a small country as Belgium, sandwiched between Air France, KLM and Lufthansa, there was no need any longer for a Belgium national carrier, well if that was said then it seems SN Brussels Airlines have proved any nayer's wrong, are you so sure that a new and leaner Hungarian national airline couldn't make a go of things?
And might you be suggesting that if anything were to happen to the UK national carrier then the UK travelling public would settle for travelling with the likes of Air France, Lufthansa and an Irish low cost carrier that has an appalling reputation?
