Hungarian civil aviation was pioneered by airlines such as Aero Rt. (founded 1910), Magyar Æeroforgalmi Rt. (Maefort) and Magyar Légiforgalmi Rt. The widespread devastation of World War II forced these airlines to suspend airline service in 1940-44, and they were ultimately replaced by Maszovlet as the national airline after the war. Maszovlet was founded on 29 March 1946, as theHungarian-Soviet Civil Air Transport Joint Stock Company (Magyar-Szovjet Polgári Légiforgalmi Rt. also known as MASZOVLET). A merge between Malert, Maefort and the Hungarian part of Aeroflot.
The initial fleet consisted of 21-seat Li-2 passenger aircraft (the Soviet-licensed DC-3) and 3-seat Po-2 "taxis", used for precision air mail: sacks of mail were dropped from the aircraft when flying over its destination. In 1950, Malév's operating base moved from Budaörs to the newly opened airport at Ferihegy, where it remained.
On 25 November 1954, Hungary acquired all the Soviet shares of MASZOVLET, and renamed the company, MALÉV was born. Ilyushin Il-14 twin piston-engined transport aircraft were acquired in the late 1950s. Operations were expanded, with flights extending to nearby countries and, following the 1965 acquisition of Ilyushin Il-18 turbine propellor airliners, and the subsequent 1968 purchase of jet-powered Tupolev Tu-134s from the Soviet Union, across Europe and the Middle East.
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[6]).
The company's logo which turned out to be the last one, was designed by graphic designer László Zsótér (DLA) in 1986 and consecutively adopted during the following years.[7]