Even before the political changes of 1989 and the arrival of democracy, Malév had begun phasing out its Soviet-era planes with the introduction of the airline's first western designed aircraft, a Boeing 737-200 on 18 November 1988.[4][5]
With that, Malév was the first among the airlines in the then-communist countries of Central Europe to operate a western-built aircraft (LOT - Polish Airlines was the second with its Boeing 767-300 aircraft launched in April 1989).