GERMANY: Germania To Add More Flights To Greece In 2018

German carrier Germania has revised its flight program for summer 2018 and will operate more frequent flights from Dusseldorf to Greece.

The new destinations include the Greek islands of Crete, Karpathos, Kos, Lesvos, Rhodes and Zakynthos. Additionally, the number of connections to the island of Samos will be increased to two per week.

In 2018 Germania will also operate a new twice weekly service from Dresden to Athens. Moreover, in 2018 the airline will launch flights from Germany to Thessaloniki and Corfu.

Germania already operates seasonal direct flights from the German cities of Bremen and Nuremberg to Athens and also offers service to select Greek islands through a codeshare agreement with Greek airline Sky Express.

Top Kinissis Hellas is the General Sales Agent (GSA) of Germania in Greece.

New flights to Canary Islands and Portugal

Germania also announced that in 2018 it will fly to the Canary Islands of Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma and Tenerife. Also new to the airline’s schedule are the Portuguese destinations Faro on the Atlantic coast and Ponta Delgada at the Azores.

Also, in 2018 two flights a week twill continue to take off from Germany to Paphos in Cyprus.

Germania’s 2018 winter schedule also includes four flights a week for Tel Aviv.

In efforts to meet demand from the Turkish community in Germany, Germania offers an extensive choice of flights to Turkey.

The destination airports include Edremit, Alanya/Gazipasa, Hatay and Zonguldak. A new addition is Kütahya/Zafer, while the flights to Malatya are being increased.



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GREECE: American Tourist Beaten To Death In Bar At Zakynthos Island

An American tourist was beaten to death on Friday after a fight erupted at a bar on Greek island of Zakynthos, and at least eight people have been arrested in connection with his killing, according to local police.

Bakari Henderson, a 22-year-old recent graduate of the University of Arizona, was at a bar on the Greek island of Zakynthos when a fight broke out with another group of people on Friday around 3 a.m. local time, according to police there.

The fight escalated into a brawl and Henderson was battered to death in the street, police said. Further details on the clash were not immediately clear, but police said it involved two groups of people.

Pavlos Kolokotsas, the mayor of Zakynthos, said that both groups involved had been drinking extensively.

The investigation into the incident and Henderson’s death is ongoing.

Police said that a British citizen of Serbian origin, who is temporarily employed in Greece as a bouncer, and a Greek national, who works at the bar in Zakynthos, were arrested Friday and named suspects in the beating death.

Six Serbian tourists were also arrested after being identified on surveillance footage as having taken part in the brawl, police said.

The eight arrested so far are expected to appear in court Saturday.

The University of Arizona issued a statement Friday on the news of Henderson's "untimely death."

"All of us at the University of Arizona are shocked and saddened by the loss of our recent graduate, Bakari Henderson," the university's president, Robert Robbins, said in the statement. "Our hearts and prayers are with his friends and family. I can only imagine the deep sense of loss they must be feeling at his untimely death. It is always a tragedy when a young life ends before it has really yet to begin."

An official within the U.S. State Department said that Zakynthos police had notified the U.S. embassy of the death of an American citizen there early Friday.

We are in communication with authorities and providing consular assistance to the deceased citizen’s family,the official said in a statement Saturday. We offer our sincerest condolences to family and friends, and out of respect for the family during this difficult time, we have no further comment.

Henderson's family said that a memorial service is being planned.

And below, is the Henderson family's statement:

As you can imagine, our family is devastated by the recent loss of our beloved son Bakari Jaward Henderson. He attended Anderson High School through his junior year and graduated from Hyde Park Baptist High School in 2013. Bakari attended The Eller College of Management at The University of Arizona on a full academic scholarship and graduated on May 12, 2017 with a BS in Business Finance and Entrepreneurship.

The summer after his freshman year at University of Arizona, he interned with the Texas Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Texas State Senate. Bakari was in Greece working on a photo shoot to launch his new clothing line when the unbelievable tragedy occurred.

Bakari loved spending time with family and friends, traveling, and meeting new people. He was a big thinker and enjoyed coming up with new business ventures. Bakari was an inspiration to all he met. He loved life and lived it to the fullest.

We would like to thank our family, friends and the Austin community for your prayers, love and support.



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CROATIA: Croatia Airlines Starts Flights From Zagreb To Pulkovo St. Petersburg Airport

Croatia Airlines has started regular air service from Zagreb (Croatia) to Saint Petersburg (Russia). The route will be launched for the first time in the recent history of Pulkovo airport. The carrier will operate the flights from 2 June to 23 October.

Travelers will be able to fly from the Northern capital of Russia to the capital of Croatia twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays. Comfortable Airbus A319s with a capacity of 144 passengers will be operated on the route.

Before 2015, Pulkovo airport only had direct air service with Croatian resorts Pula and Split. In 2010-2014, over 62,000 passengers used direct flights between the two cities and St Petersburg. In addition, more than 21,000 travelers flew from Pulkovo to Zagreb and back via transfers in other airports, in 2010-2014.

“Every year many Russians choose Croatia, the country of rich history, magnificent nature and landscape, as their vacation spot. With the new route opening travelers will now be able to visit other points in Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina using convenient connecting flights via Zagreb. At the same time, St Petersburg remains one of the most visited cities in Europe, with cheap Russian ruble making traveling to Russia even more attractive. It is our strong belief that the new Croatia Airlines service to St Petersburg will be in demand both among Russian and Croatian tourists, say Evgeniy Ilyin, chief commercial officer at Northern Capital Gateway LLC, the operator of Pulkovo Airport.

The tickets are already available with promo rates starting from €199 for the round trip.

Other new routes planned for launching from Pulkovo in the summer season 2016 include Shanghai (China), Corfu, Zakynthos (Greece), and Batumi (Georgia). In addition, flights to Naples (Italy), Brussels (Belgium) and several other European cities will be renewed.

Croatia Airlines is the flag carrier of Croatia and a Star Alliance member. In the summer season 2016 the airline’s route network will include 34 points in 20 European countries.

FINLAND: Finnair To Fly To Four New European Destinations In 2016

The airline Finnair will launch next year four new routes from Helsinki to northern Europe or East And it will convert into eight routes previously operated scheduled flights only charter flights.

As of April 4, 2016, the national carrier of Finland will offer a daily flight between the airport of Helsinki-Vantaa and Billund, operated by Embraer 170 seats 76 by ​​its subsidiary Nordic Regional Airlines (eg Flybe Nordic). Departures are scheduled at 8:05 (8:55 arrival) or 4:10 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (arrival 17:00) are return flights leaving Denmark respectively at 12:10 (2:55 p.m. arrival) and at 20:10 (10:55 p.m. arrival). No competition on this route for Finnair, already poses five times a day in Copenhagen.

As of April 18 and throughout the summer season, the airline alliance will offer three and four weekly rotations between its capital and Edinburgh, operated by Airbus A319 of 138 seats again without competition. Departures Monday and Thursday are scheduled at 8:30 am (arrival 9:10), the one on Wednesday at 17:20 (arrival 18.00) and the Sunday at 16:30 (arrival 5:10 p.m.) Return flights will leave Scotland Monday and Thursday at 9:50 am (14:40 arrival), Wednesday at 18:40 (arriving 23:30) and Sundays at 18:15 (23:05 arrival). This road will allow "our Asian customers excellent opportunities to travel to Scotland on their travels in the UK, Scotland and connect the broad Asian network of Finnair, which has 13 airports."

From June 1 to August 27, Finnair will offer three flights a week between Helsinki and Svalbard, Longyearbyen airport accepting regular flights over the north of the planet. The E190 100 seats of its subsidiary will take off on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday 23:45 (arrival the next day at 1:55), and will leave the Norwegian archipelago Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 2:45 (6:45 arrival). Only SAS Scandinavian Airlines and Norwegian offer low cost scheduled flights to Svalbard.

Finally significantly further south, Finnair will offer from June 20 to August 12 two flights a week between Helsinki and Pula starts Monday at 7:45 (9:40 arrival) and Friday at 5:35 p.m. (arrival 7:30 p.m.) and return of Croatia respectively at 10:30 am (2:25 p.m. arrival ) and 8:25 p.m. (0:20 arrival). No competition there either for the company that already serves Dubrovnik and Split.

Finnair will convert to the other regular flights from the month of May 2016 eight routes to Greece, Italy and Bulgaria previously offered only as charter flights in almost every case with one flight per week in A319, A320 or A321: these flies to Preveza (two flights a week), Rimini, Mytilini, Santorini, Skiathos, Varna, Verona and Zakynthos.