GERMANY: Eurowings To Hire 600 Crew

Lufthansa Group LCC subsidiary Eurowings will hire 600 crew members, comprising 200 pilots and 400 cabin crew members, as its fleet expands to a further 20 Airbus A320s.

In addition, Eurowings management has confirmed that temporary working contracts for flight attendants will be changed to permanent contracts. Eurowings employs 1,500 flight attendants.

Lufthansa established Eurowings as a pan-European LCC platform in 2015 to operate low-cost flights from several bases outside Germany and safeguard Lufthansa Group’s leading position in point-to-point connections in its German, Austrian, Swiss and Belgian home markets.

It had been expected to grow quickly.



Tourism Observer

Best Airlines in 2016

The FlightStats OPS Awards recognized best airlines around the world in 2016 for on-time performance. Airlines below deliver the highest percentage of flights to their arrival gates within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time. To determine the finalists and winners, FlightStats examines flight status and arrival data aggregated from global sources including civil aviation authorities, airlines, airports, and major airline reservation systems.

The report covers airlines in the following eight (8) categories:

1. Major International Airlines
2. Airline Alliances
3. North American Major Airlines
4. European Major Airlines
5. Asia-Pacific Major Airlines
6. Middle East & Africa Major Airlines
7. Latin American Major Airlines
8. Low-Cost Carrier

This year, the awards expanded to recognize the best Major Global Airline and best Major Global Airline Network in each of the regional categories as well as the international category. “Network” is defined as a system of flights that are marketed by a major airline but are operated by a separate airline partner. Most big, full-service airlines have these types of regional partnerships where as many as 8-10 carriers operate flights on their behalf.

MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES
Network
WINNER: KLM
FINALISTS: KLM, Iberia, JAL, Qatar Airways, Austrian, ANA, Singapore Airlines, Delta Air Lines, TAM Linhas Aereas, Qantas

Mainline
WINNER: Iberia
FINALISTS: Iberia, JAL, Delta Air Lines, KLM, Qatar Airways, Austrian, Singapore Airlines, ANA, TAM Linhas Aereas, Qantas

AIRLINE ALLIANCE
WINNER: oneworld
FINALISTS: oneworld, Star Alliance, SkyTeam

NORTH AMERICAN MAJOR AIRLINES
Network
WINNER: Alaska Airlines
FINALISTS: Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, WestJet, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Virgin America, JetBlue Airways, Air Canada

Mainline
WINNER: Alaska Airlines
FINALISTS: Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, WestJet, American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Virgin America, JetBlue Airways, Air Canada

EUROPEAN MAJOR AIRLINES
Network
WINNER: Iberia
FINALISTS: Iberia, Austrian, Lufthansa, S7 Airlines, Norwegian Air Shuttle, SWISS, Condor, British Airways, EasyJet, Vueling

Mainline
WINNER: Iberia
FINALISTS: Iberia, KLM, Austrian, S7 Airlines, SAS, Lufthansa, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Aeroflot, Condor, SWISS

ASIA-PACIFIC MAJOR AIRLINES
Network
WINNER: JAL
FINALISTS: JAL, Virgin Australia, ANA, Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Air New Zealand, Jet Airways (India), Cathay Pacific, Jetstar, IndiGo

Mainline
WINNER: JAL
FINALISTS: JAL, Virgin Australia, Singapore Airlines, ANA, Qantas, Air New Zealand, Jet Airways (India), Cathay Pacific, Jetstar, IndiGo

MIDDLE EAST and AFRICA MAJOR AIRLINES
Network
WINNER: Qatar Airways
FINALISTS: Qatar Airways, Saudia, Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines, Flydubai, Kenya Airways, Pegasus

Mainline
WINNER: Qatar Airways
FINALISTS: Qatar Airways, South African Airways, Saudia, Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines, Flydubai, Kenya Airways, Pegasus

LATIN AMERICAN MAJOR AIRLINES
Network
WINNER: Copa Airlines
FINALISTS: Copa Airlines, TAM Linhas Aereas, Gol, Aerolineas Argentinas, LAN Airlines, AVIANCA, Aeromexico

Mainline
WINNER: Copa Airlines
FINALISTS: Copa Airlines, TAM Linhas Aereas, Gol, Aerolineas Argentinas, LAN Airlines, Aeromexico, AVIANCA

LOW-COST AIRLINES
WINNER: Iberia Express
FINALISTS: Iberia Express, Air Baltic, Solaseed Air, Air Do, WestJet, Southwest Airlines, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Nok Air, NIKI, Frontier Airlines

Latest Dental Tourism Figures Under Question

The Hungarian dental tourism sector welcomes 60,000 to 70,000 dental tourists every year, claims the local dental sector.

Since 2008, Budapest has become Europe’s dental capital due to budget flights and high dental prices in Western Europe. Most of the dental tourists visiting Budapest come from the UK, France and Scandinavia. Besides the capital, visitor numbers at the clinics in Győr, Mosonmagyaróvár and Sopron, in Western Hungary are popular with Austrian and German patients.

300 clinics and 3,000 employees operate the Hungarian dental tourism sector, welcoming 60,000 to 70,000 dental tourists every year, claims the local dental tourism industry. These figures have to be used with care as they are estimated by local dental tourism groups promoting dental travel exhibitions and are not official figures. These groups claim that nearly 90% of the annual income of the Hungarian health tourism sector, is based on dental tourism, but as Hungary has a huge spa and wellness tourism business, that is very unlikely.

The groups claim that according to the data of the Central Statistical Office (KSH), in 2014 4.6 million tourists spent 12.3 million nights in Hungary with 440,000 nights linked directly to the dental tourism. But neither the government or any other organisation collects data in this detail, so it is not known how an estimated 440,000 dental nights became 60 to 70,000 dental tourists.

If you look at the actual published online KSH figures there were 11 million tourists in 2014 that on average stay two nights. Using a small sample of 20,000 tourists, KSH say that this includes 3,163 visits for spas, wellness, medical or dental treatment and this may suggest a total of 2.7 million in this sector, Hungarian health and wellness tourism accounts for over 2 million international visitors a year. Nowhere do these or other KSH figures isolate either dental tourism or medical tourism.

Figures as high as 350,000 were once claimed as medical and dental tourists for Hungary. Back in 2012 the Medical Tourism Office claimed an estimated 70,000 dental tourists for 2011. Hungary has been losing out both to cheaper competitors and lower prices from dentists in what were source countries. Even 60,000 could be too high.