Hungarian airline Malev made a loss of 2.11 billion Hungarian forints (USD$11 million) in 2004, compared to a loss of 4.3 billion forints (USD$22.4 million) a year earlier, according to a report on Tuesday.

Despite that loss, Chief Executive Janos Gonci was quoted by news agency MTI as saying: "Malev can definitely stay stable until at least the end of 2006 and does not require state support."

Hungary's government launched its fifth attempt at selling the airline at the beginning of the month but analysts have predicted Malev will be hard to dispose of without major restructuring and radical cost cuts.

Malev saw its share of the traffic at its Budapest hub fall to 49 percent in 2004 from 56.5 percent in 2003, mainly due to the expansion of budget airlines, MTI said.

The airline's ticket revenue rose by 4 percent to 75.8 billion forints (USD$395 million) in 2004.

Malev needs over 157 billion forints (USD$818.3 million) at current prices for infrastructure development projects until 2009, mainly at the Budapest hub and the regional airport of Sarmellek, which connects two German cities to Hungarian tourist resorts, Gonci said.