The United Arab Emirates is seeking to establish Budapest as a bridgehead for onward flights in a move that could allow 2 of the Gulf region’s biggest airlines to carry people between central Europe and the US. The application for so-called fifth-freedom rights concerns services to 2 points beyond Hungary, Saif Al Suwaidi, DG of the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority, said, adding that those locations have yet to be determined, but could include the US. Such flights can make a huge difference in the growth of airlines, opening up completely new markets that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to access. Since 2013, Emirates has been extending a Dubai-Milan service on to New York, tapping travel between prosperous northern Italy and the eastern US with Airbus A380s seating more than 450 people. <br/>
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SunExpress is facing a challenging summer season as bookings to many tourism areas have dropped to Turkey and the Greek islands due to the emigration of high number of Middle Eastern refugees. European vacationers have started to look for alternative destinations, which has affected leisure carriers including SunExpress. For example, the Greece Island Lesbos has seen a 90% drop in bookings for the summer 2016 season as it has become the number one refugee hot spot. “The year 2016 will be very challenging for SunExpress, especially the change of demand of destinations from our passengers. We are well prepared and adjusted our timetable and network,” CE Jaan Albrecht said. In 2015, SunExpress carried 8.7m passengers, up 19.2% compared to the previous year. Load factor was more than 85%. <br/>
Stop blaming the perceived pilot shortage for the bankruptcy of Republic Airways, said Air Line Pilot Association president Tim Canoll, and stop blaming minimum flight time requirements for the perceived pilot shortage. The real problem, Canoll said, is that regional airlines don't pay enough to encourage people to become pilots. Rather, the average annual salary at a regional airline is US$27,350. "The supply of pilots willing to work for $25,000 is almost zero," Canoll. As for the perceived shortage, Canoll said, "We have many more pilots than people are asserting. We have plenty of pilots with certificates who are available to fly. The problem is they don't want the jobs; the jobs don't provide proper pay and benefits. The regional airlines are caught in the middle." <br/>
Qunar, the Baidu-backed travel booking website, released an unexpected piece of news earlier this week: the company is going to start its own airline. Qunar isn’t doing it alone. Qunar is joining 2 co-founders in the venture, and will focus primarily on the ticketing and tech side of the airline. Qunar will be a minority shareholder, and media speculates that a major investor may be the Baoneng Group, which is reportedly in the process of launching its own airline in Shenzhen. The airline will be based in Shenzhen, focus on budget travel, and will complete both international and domestic routes. This news comes after an eventful winter for Qunar. In January, a number of Chinese airlines revolted against the firm over a dispute regarding discounts and the style of the listings on Qunar’s website. <br/>
Portuguese carrier SATA has come in last in a new survey ranking the world's worst airlines, with EasyJet coming in at second. Virgin Atlantic came third in the table created by AirHelp. AirHelp rated 34 airlines according to 3 categories: each carrier's quality rating by Skytrax; the airline's on-time flight performance during the last quarter of last year; and "claim processing", which considers the number of rejected flight compensation claims that were later up-held in court, and the time it takes for the airline to acknowledge, handle and pay out a successful claim. It is unknown how many passengers were surveyed for the latest rankings but the data was drawn from 3,607 compensation claims made in the final quarter of last year. <br/>