GERMANY: Eurowings To Fire 300 Staff At Head-Office

Eurowings, the low-cost airline owned by Lufthansa , said it would cut a third of the jobs at its headquarters as part of wider efforts to return the German airline group to profitability after a major state bailout.

We have around 1,000 staff at head office and of those we will reduce 300, Eurowings Chief Executive Jens Bischof told a briefing in Duesseldorf.

Germany threw Lufthansa a 9 billion euro ($9.8 billion) lifeline on Monday, agreeing a bailout which gives Berlin a veto in the event of a hostile bid for the airline.

Bischof, in remarks did not give figures for job reductions in other operational areas at Eurowings, which employs a total of around 4,000 staff.

He said the outcome would depend on negotiations with staff representatives and how work is allocated in future between Lufthansa and Eurowings. It would likely take until 2023 before activity returns to last year's levels.

GERMAN airline Eurowings is reactivating its base in Spain holiday island Mallorca in another good sign for the recovery of the Balearic Island tourism sector.

The airline, a subsidiary of Lufthansa, will be taking off from Mallorca capital Palma next Saturday June 27 with a flight to German city Hannover following a break of some three months due to the Covid-19 crisis.

The company will be operating more than 50 flights a week from Palma, going up to nearly 170 by the end of July, with connections to 16 airports in Germany and Austria.

To begin with Eurowings will operate with two A-320 aircraft stationed at Palma’s Son San Joan airport, going up to three over the summer

We are very pleased that Eurowings Europe is able to take off again, commented Eurowings Europe Managing Director Robert Jahn.

He also thanked company employees, who he said had had to endure a lot of uncertainty and show staying power in the past weeks.

Eurowings will take off again at the end of June with its international flight operation Eurowings Europe. The first flight after a break of around three months will take place on 27 June at 07:45 from Palma to Hanover.

With the reopening of the Mallorca base, Eurowings is underlining its position as Germany’s largest holiday airline. With the additional aircraft stationed on the Balearic island, Eurowings is operating a flight schedule that supplements numerous Mallorca connections at major Eurowings locations such as Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Cologne/Bonn with additional destinations in Germany and Austria.

Eurowings primarily operates flights from Mallorca to Berlin, Bremen, Dresden, Hanover, Leipzig, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Munich, Munster-Osnabruck, Nuremberg and Saarbrucken. In Austria, Eurowings connects Salzburg and Innsbruck with Mallorca.

With the beginning of the summer holidays in some German federal states, Eurowings will again offer more than 50 Mallorca flights per week. During the peak holiday season from the end of July, the number of flights will then increase to 168 weekly Mallorca flights.

A total of 16 airports in Germany and Austria will then be connected to Mallorca with Eurowings again. The airline had opened its first location in non-German-speaking countries in 2017 on Mallorca.

Eurowings thus became the leading carrier for flights to Mallorca to Germany and Austria.

With the end of the worldwide travel warning and the lifting of travel restrictions for Spain, customer interest in sunny destinations is growing by leaps and bounds. Therefore the airline has decided to reactivate its crews based in Palma.

Eurowings Europe will initially start operations with two Airbus A320s and increase to three aircraft over the summer. The airline also operates additional international stations for Eurowings in Salzburg (Austria) and Pristina (Kosovo).

We are very pleased that Eurowings Europe is able to take off again, said Robert Jahn, Managing Director of Eurowings Europe. I would like to thank our guests for their patience and understanding during this difficult phase.

And I would especially like to thank our Eurowings Europe team, who had to endure a lot of uncertainty and show staying power in the past weeks.

We are all the more pleased that we can now start again and be there for our holiday guests.

Mallorca is booming with Eurowings, which uses A330 wide-body to Palma Airport.

Eurowings is offering more than 160 additional flights by Airbus A330 from Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart and Düsseldorf over the next three months.

Eurowings is strengthening its position as Germany’s largest holiday airline. The Lufthansa subsidiary is expanding its route portfolio in the direction of South-East Europe and will be flying to Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast on a large scale for the first time in summer 2020.

The two new up-and-coming holiday destinations being offered are Varna and Burgas.

Flights will be available from six German airports from 6 July. In addition to the major Eurowings stations in Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Stuttgart, the airports of Munich, Hanover and Leipzig will also be directly connected to the Bulgarian coast from July.

The airline’s programme will then include more than 20 weekly flights to Burgas and Varna. Among the European sunshine destinations, Bulgaria is becoming the new holiday favourite for inexpensive summer holidays, both for families and for the younger public.

KOSOVO: Man With A Heart For Kosovo

A pilot from Kosovo visited Samoa to say thank you for recognising their independence.

James Berisha was in the country for three days.

Kosovo declared independence in February 17, 2008 from Serbia by Kosovo’s former Prime Minister Hashim Thaqi. However, not many countries recognised the independence of Kosovo.

That‘s when Mr. Berisha started a mission called “Flying for Kosovo,” to raise awareness about Kosovo’s independence.

“The main reason why I started the mission was to help the people of Kosovo and the nation to get on their feet and to spread the word to the rest of the world that Kosovo exists and that they are independent,” said Mr. Berisha.

His mission was mostly voluntary and self-funded in the beginning and it began when he was residing in El Paso Texas.

“I purchased a small airplane and painted the flag of Kosovo on the sides with the saying “Please recognise the independence of Kosovo.”

“And I wanted to do only the Western Hemisphere countries. I thought that I would do just that then I’m done. And I did this by talking to the media and having press conferences and being in constant communications with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And it took me a year to finish all the countries in the western hemisphere.”

When Mr. Berisha returned to Kosovo, his popularity grew and the government and the people of Kosovo were “impressed” with his work.

“The government asked me to continue my mission and they will provide funding for the mission, and will try and get people to help me,” he said. “People came on board and they helped me on the mission and of course a lot of donations from people. And we got to finish all the countries in the African continent which consists 54 countries.”

For the mission, Mr. Berisha has covered 97 countries and has convinced them to recognise the independence of Kosovo.

“Because you need 2/3 of the countries to recongise your independence in order for your country to have a seat in the UN. And it is very important for countries to recognise the independent of your country.”

According to Mr. Berisha, the recognition of a country’s independence means there will be trade, importation and exportation of goods and services.

“Not forgetting sharing of ideas and aiding for other countries needs and wants.”

The ‘Flying for Kosovo’ mission did not come to Samoa. But Mr. Berisha said Samoa was one of the first countries to recognise the independence of Kosovo in September 2008.

“There are 194 nations on the globe based on the UN, and from that 194 nations, we didn’t have them recognising our independence and it was bad. But Samoa did recognise our independence the first year we declared our independence and we are grateful to the government and the people of Samoa for that,” he said.

And now he has come to Samoa, Mr. Berisha said he is amazed by the beauty of Samoa.

“This place is absolutely beautiful,” he said. “The natural surrounding is amazing and you have such loving people.

“I am here to visit and see the island. The globe is my home so I am very attracted to the nature, to different cultures, backgrounds, lifestyles and the different people. And coming here and being in contact with the people of Samoa, I’ve loved the experience.

The people of Samoa are really extremely nice. They welcome the outsiders to their homes and treat them very nice and respectful, and for me, that is very touching. One thing that impressed me about the people of Samoa is that they are very hard working. You know it’s a small island, but you see people working hard in trying to keeping the country clean and beautiful.”

“Take this from someone who have been around the world and have been to 140 countries in my lifetime aside from the mission. And I have seen the different and the uniqueness in the people of Samoa from all the other nations. I will definitely come back and will spread the word to the people of Kosovo so that they could also come to Samoa.

“Every country has its unique way of life and its unique lifestyle.

“In Samoa, everybody is so friendly and hard working. The roads are very beautiful. And I know that the government of Samoa is doing a great job with the developments of this country. I’m sure every government have their own problems but the thing I like about Samoa is that the country is very “live”. You see progress and see that everything is moving.”

He also confessed that he wished the people of Kosovo could be friendlier like the people of Samoa.

“Our people are not as friendly as the people of Samoa. I wish I could take this aspect of the Samoan culture and take it with me to Kosovo.”

The 44-year-old started flying in 1993. He is married to Zoga and they have two children.

Asked to describe Kosovo, he said: “Kosovo is a beautiful country with high mountains and fertile lands. It has four seasons and wealthy minerals.

“Tourism is not big and has a population of less than 2 million. Their culture is more like the European culture and agriculture is the main source of income.

“The Albanian language and English are the main languages used by the people of Kosovo.”

TURKEY: Another Drowned Kid Found On Turkish Beach

Refugees pray on a highway In Turkey

A four-year-old Syrian girl's body has washed up on a beach in western Turkey, state media says, just weeks after images of drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi shook the world.

The yet-to-be identified girl was found lifeless on a beach in the Aegean town of Cesme in Izmir province after a boat carrying 15 Syrians to the Greek island of Chios sank.

It said the Turkish coast guard rescued the remaining 14 Syrians, including eight children, from the inflatable boat. The girl appeared to be the only casualty.

Harrowing pictures of three-year-old Syrian asylum seeker Aylan, whose body was found washed up on a Turkish beach after the boat carrying his family to the Greek island of Kos sank, caused an outpouring of emotion around the world.

The response pressured European leaders to step up their response to the migrant crisis.

But two weeks later EU members are still at odds over how to accommodate the tens of thousands of new arrivals.

Turkish deputy prime minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Friday the Turkish coast guard had rescued over 53,000 asylum seekers from stricken boats since the beginning of the year.

He said around 274 asylum seekers had lost their lives in Turkish waters this year seeking to leave the country by sea for Greece.

In another recent tragedy, 22 people who had left Turkey drowned on Tuesday when their wooden boat sank off Kos.

Asylum seekers have in recent days turned to Turkey's land borders with Greece and Bulgaria to avoid the sea voyage that has cost over 2,600 people their lives in the Mediterranean this year.

Several hundred asylum seekers spent a third day camped in and around the Turkish border city of Edirne, which lies 10 kilometres from the Greek border and is being promoted on social media as a safer route out of Turkey than sea journey in overcrowded dinghies.

Under an "open-door" policy championed by president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has taken in 2.2 million Syrian asylum seekers since the conflict in Syria erupted in 2011.

Mr Kurtulmus said Turkey has so far spent almost $11 billion (6 billion euros) to provide for Syrian refugees.

International Organisation of Immigration says a record 473,887 asylum seekers crossed into Europe

A record 473,887 asylum seekers have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year, the International Organisation for Migration said on Friday, including at least 182,000 Syrians — almost 40 per cent of the total.

The total represents an increase of almost 9,000 from the total the Geneva-based agency gave on Tuesday. But the rate of increase has slowed.

On Tuesday, the IOM said the number of crossings had jumped by more than 32,000 since the previous Friday.

The EU's Eurostat statistics agency said the EU received 213,000 asylum applications from April to June this year, a jump of 85 per cent from the same period in 2014, with over one third coming from Syria or Afghanistan.

It said Germany had the highest number of new applicants, with more than a third of the total for the EU, while Hungary was the country that received the most asylum applications relative to its population size.

Applications from Kosovo, regarded as a "safe" country by most of the EU, dropped sharply in the period, from the top berth with 50,000 requests in the first quarter to just over 10,000 one quarter later.

Across the EU almost 600,000 applications were pending at the end of June, Eurostat said, with 52 per cent of those being processed in Germany.

The European Union must know that Croatia will not become a migrant 'hotspot'. We have hearts, but we also have head.Croatia's prime minister, Zoran Milanovi

Croatia said it cannot and would not accept the burden of thousands of asylum seekers any longer, nor register or accommodate them.

Faced with an influx of more than 13,000 migrants in just over two days, prime minister Zoran Milanovic said on Friday he had called a session of Croatia's National Security Council and that it was time to deal with the problem in a different way

"We cannot register and accommodate these people any longer," he told a news conference.

"They will get food, water and medical help, and then they can move on. The European Union must know that Croatia will not become a migrant 'hotspot'. We have hearts, but we also have heads."

In response, Slovenia accused Croatia on of breaking the rules of the EU and the Schengen zone of border-free travel.

Interior ministry state secretary Bostjan Sefic said Slovenia expected around 1,000 asylum seekers to cross from Croatia in the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Dutch prosecutors said on Friday they had arrested two Syrians suspected of operating a large people-smuggling ring that brought hundreds of Syrian refugees into Europe.

Following a year-long investigation, Dutch authorities arrested a 35-year-old Syrian man living in the southern city of Eindhoven as well as his 26-year-old cousin.

Europol, Europe's police agency, is tracking as many as 30,000 suspected people smugglers who are taking advantage of large flows into the continent of asylum seekers escaping conflict in the Middle East and Africa.
Vatican takes in first Syrian refugee family

Responding to a call from Pope Francis for every Church parish to house refugees, the Vatican City said on Friday it had taken in a family that had fled the war in Syria.

The family — a father, mother and their two children — came from Damascus and are Melkite Greek Catholics, a Christian church with close ties to the Roman Catholic Church.

The Vatican said in a statement the family, which was not named, arrived in Italy on September 6, the day Pope Francis made his appeal for European parishes to open their doors to refugees. The four Syrians have since asked for asylum.
Journey in search of a better life

In a special report, ABC correspondents Mary Gearin, Barbara Miller and Sophie McNeill follow some asylum seekers on their long path through Europe.

"According to the law, for the first six months following the request for asylum those seeking international protection cannot work," the Vatican said.

"During this time, they will be helped and accompanied by the Parish of Santa Anna."

The Vatican City, a micro state which sits in the heart of Rome, contains two parishes — Santa Anna and St. Peter's Basilica.

The Vatican said it could not yet provide any information about a second family that is expected to be housed by the St Peter's administration.

Some parishioners have been openly hostile to the idea of welcoming in Muslims.

Monks in a village in Slovakia had to withdraw an offer to house Christian Syrian refugees after locals baulked at the idea.

The vast majority of Syrians are Muslims, but its small Christian community is one of the oldest in the world, making up an estimated 10 per cent of the population before the outbreak of the Syrian unrest in 2011.

According to its website, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church had some 150,000 members in Damascus in 2010. It is not clear how many have stayed in the city.