Hungary national airline sold off

Malev is lumbered with a vast debt

Malev - Hungary's debt-ridden national airline - has been privatised.

Hungarian consortium Airbridge, backed by Russian carrier KrasAir, has bought the government's 99.95% stake in Malev for 200m forint ($1.04m; £530,000).

The consortium will also make a cash injection and repay some of its 32bn forint (£85m) debt.

KrasAir, Russia's fifth largest airline, is 51% owned by the Kremlin. It is also part of the Russian airlines alliance AirUnion.

Chief Executive of KrasAir Boris Abramovich said the plan was to return Malev to profitability within two years.

The airline has 29 aircraft and carried about three million passengers in 2005.