Tag Archives: Dubai

Emirates Airlines has enhanced its presence in Southeast Asia with the launch of a new daily linked service from Dubai to Yangon (RGN) in Myanmar, and onwards to Hanoi (HAN) in Vietnam. This new service, which is being operated with a Boeing 777-300ER, expands the airline’s network in Southeast Asia to 12 cities in seven countries and offers more choices and convenience to passengers travelling between Hanoi and Yangon to Dubai and beyond. Yangon, the first destination within Myanmar to be served by Emirates, is one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia. As the country’s largest city and the most important commercial centre, Yangon contributes approximately one fifth to the country’s GDP. The previously undiscovered country offers visitors a rare glimpse of ancient Asia, and since the opening up of tourism, has witnessed an increase in foreign tourist arrivals. Meanwhile, Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam and also a destination with rich culture and heritage for over a thousand years, becomes Emirates’ second gateway within the country following the launch of services to Ho Chi Minh City in 2012. As with all Emirates flights, passengers travelling on the Yangon and Hanoi service will be able to take advantage of the generous Emirates baggage allowance of up to 35kg in Economy Class, and 40kg in Business Class, and 50kg in First Class. Flights to Yangon and Hanoi will depart daily from Dubai as EK388 at 03:30hrs arriving at Yangon International Airport at 11:40hrs. The service will then depart from Yangon at 13:00hrs and arrive at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport at 15:30hrs. The return flight, EK389 will depart Hanoi at 22:50hrs, arriving at Yangon at 00:20hrs the next day. The …

Nepal Airlines, the state-owned carrier of Nepal, will be resuming flights to Dubai, four years after it cancelled services due to fleet reliability issues. ANTA Travels, the airlines’ local sales agent in Dubai, confirmed that the first flight to Dubai will resume from Kathmandu, Nepal on August 18 and reach Dubai on August 19, 2016. The airline has acquired a 158-seat A320 to operate three weekly services between Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, and Dubai. Nepal Airlines will commence operation from Dubai Terminal 2 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 4.10 am. The flight schedules and fares are updated in Sabre, Galileo and Amadeus reservation systems. The A320 will consist of 150 Economy Class and 8 Business Class seats in every flight. There will be complementary meals offered for all the passengers. It will operate as a full service carrier. Initially the bulk of passengers will be Nepalese working in the UAE but by next March there are plans to promote tourism within the two destinations. More on this will be revealed in our print version in September.

The United Arab Emirates’ capital, Dubai, is preparing to get its first Hard Rock Hotel, and company representatives say the new location could open as soon as late this year, or early next year. Dubai’s Hard Rock Hotel will inhabit the first 33 floors of the towering Marino 101 building that stands 101 stories tall. It’s a fairly middle-sized property in terms of Hard Rock’s chain, where hotel capacities vary from 150 to 2,000 rooms. The Dubai hotel will be a 288-room property with adjoining amenities, from a fitness center to a ‘rock and roll’ spa and restaurant areas. Just 31 kilometers from Dubai International Airport, Hard Rock Dubai will be within walking distance from Jumeriah beach areas and not far from other big attractions like Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall. Hard Rock Dubai is planning an exciting, unique program called “Sound of Your Stay” in which guests can get a variety of Fender electric guitars delivered to their rooms — or try their hands at the turntables with in-room DJ equipment services. “The Sound of Your Stay program has been a success since it was globally rolled out at all our hotels,” Hard Rock representative Josh Littman said. “We expect the program to be just as much of a success at Hard Rock Hotel Dubai.” With Sound of Your Stay, guests will choose from Hard Rock’s trademarked “Picks,” “Tracks” or “Mix” services: With “Picks,” guests choose a guitar from a variety of 20 Fender electric guitars, as well as headphones and a floor amplifier to play for free during their stay. Video lessons are also available. With the “Tracks” service, guests get curated playlists — hand-selected by celebrities and …

A formal agreement to build the Novotel Sharjah Expo, an exclusive business hotel, was signed between Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Chairman of Basma Group and Günther Hinterberger, Managing Director, Klampfer Middle East, in the presence of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah and Chairman of United Investment, and Khalifa Al Shaibani, Director-General of United Investment. The Dh120 million Novotel Sharjah Expo is being developed under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, and will serve as the official hotel of Expo Centre Sharjah. The upcoming hotel is being seen as a new milestone for business and MICE tourism in Sharjah. The Chairman of Basma Group said, “We in Sharjah are constantly striving, under the guidance of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, to improve our emirate in a way that makes it keep pace with changing times and represent a beacon of modernity and authenticity at the same time. It is this endeavor that spawned the idea to build Novotel Sharjah Expo.” The business hotel is the latest addition to Sharjah’s hospitality and tourism industry and will comprise 200 rooms that fall under three categories – standard rooms, club floor rooms and executive suites. The Novotel Sharjah Expo is strategically located close to Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Dubai, as well as to the vital leisure areas in Sharjah. The hotel will feature a business centre with workstations and two meeting halls including a large meeting-cum-function hall of approximately 200 square metres.

India Tourism in Dubai and Indian Embassy in Cairo organised a ‘Know India’ seminar for the travel trade at Tagore Hall, Embassy of India, in Cairo recently. I.R.V. Rao, Assistant Director, India Tourism in Dubai, Sanjay Bhattacharyya, Ambassador of India to Arab Republic of Egypt, Melwin D’ Silva, Regional Manager-Gulf, Middle East and Africa, Air India, attended the event with 45 travel agents, representatives from Egypt Air and Qatar Airways. The delegation from the Government of Egypt included Mahmoud Abdel Wahab, General Manager-Tourism Relations, Ministry of Tourism, Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt; Mohamed Salama, Egyptian Tourism Authority (ITA), Ministry of Tourism, Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt. The event was held on July 14, 2016.

In a bid to increase capacity between Dubai and Milan, Emirates will deploy a second daily A380 on the route from October 1, 2016. The shift from a Boeing 777-300ER to the double decker represents a capacity increase of 1,834 seats per week between the two cities; enabling more A380 to A380 connections to and from key destinations in Australia, China, South Korea and South East Asia with just one stop in Dubai. Emirates flights EK91/92 will be operated by an Airbus A380 aircraft in a 3-class configuration with 14 Private Suites in First Class, 76 flat-bed seats in Business Class and 401 seats in Economy Class. Passengers in all classes will enjoy access to free Wi-Fi. Emirates’ flight EK91 departs from Dubai at 15:45hrs and arrives in Milan at 20:30hrs. The outbound flight EK92 departs from Milan at 22:20hrs and arrives in Dubai at 06:25hrs the following day. The airline currently operates three daily services between Dubai and Milan, as well as a daily flight from Milan to New York JFK.

Dubai-based flydubai has announced the addition of two new flights a week between Dubai and Bucharest and will now fly daily to the Romanian capital. “We are delighted to announce our daily flights from to Bucharest,” said Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer, flydubai. “At flydubai, we are committed to expanding connectivity to destinations that have historically been underserved from Dubai. Since the launch of our Bucharest route in 2012, we have witnessed increasing demand from GCC passengers visiting the city and Romanian expatriates using our hub in Dubai to connect and visit family and friends around the world.” flydubai’s passenger traffic between Dubai and Bucharest continue to grow year-on-year, and it remains a particularly popular route for Business Class passengers. The airline has seen great demand from passengers travelling to Dubai and further afield on the flydubai network, whether for business or leisure. “The launch of daily routes to Bucharest will provide greater convenience and connection options for flydubai passengers travelling to Dubai and beyond. Popular connecting routes from Bucharest include Colombo, Delhi, Kuwait, Male’, Mumbai and Zanzibar,” said Jeyhun Efendi, Senior Vice President Commercial (UAE, EU, ME, CIS) for flydubai. “Our Business Class offering, which provides passengers with spacious seats, a choice of meals, generous checked baggage allowance and fast track immigration and security, is particularly popular on this route. It demonstrates our commitment to continually innovate and offer our passengers a range of different travel options and the latest on-board entertainment.”  

Lemon Tree Hotels is all set to cash in on growing Indian tourist and corporate travel to the UAE, as it plans to operate eight properties in the next three years in the region. The company will be opening a mix of hotels and serviced apartments in Abu Dhabi, Fujairah and Dubai, where it expects to operate its first property. According to Rattan Keswani, Deputy Managing Director, Lemon Tree Hotels, they are trying to harness the spending power of Indians through this development. Lemon Tree has tied up with the Sydney-based real estate agent Raine and Horne to open Lemon Tree properties in the region, including in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The company, which operates properties under the Lemon Tree and Red Fox brands, said the planned hotels would have between 60 and 100 rooms on average, and could include pool, spa and up to three restaurants. Lemon Tree Hotels is also looking at Sri Lanka and the Thai capital Bangkok. Sanjay Chimnani, MD, Raine and Horne, said it would be looking at neighbourhoods in Dubai such as Jaddaf, Business Bay, City Walk, Al Barsha, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Jebel Ali and Jumeirah Village Circle to open more properties.    

Dusit Hotels and Resorts announces the signing of a technical design agreement with ACES Property Development to bring a new hotel apartment project under the DusitPrincess brand to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The agreement was formalised at a signing ceremony recently held at the Dusit Thani Bangkok presided over by executives from both companies, including Dusit’s Group Chief Executive Officer Suphajee Suthumpun and Founding Director of ACES, Kashif Shahzad.  The DusitPrincess ACES Dubai will be located in the Jumeirah Village Circle, in close proximity to the new Al Makhtoum International Airport, the Palm Jumeirah, and other exciting shopping and entertainment venues. Full details will be released at the project’s groundbreaking ceremony to be held soon.

Air France first launched its Premium Economy cabin in 2009 and is now offering Premium Economy class travel across the entire long haul fleet, including Dubai to European destinations. Passengers can now enjoy an even more comfortable way of travelling for business or pleasure at affordable prices, in a separate cabin. The Premium Economy seat offers 40% more space than regular Economy class and has been enjoyed by close to three million customers since launch. Air France Premium Economy fares start at AED4,515.00 to Europe (terms & conditions apply). Passengers in Premium Economy enjoy some little extras with the added benefits of Business class amenities such as a complimentary toiletries kit, a soft blanket, down pillow, and a bottle of mineral water. Passengers travelling with Air France and KLM enjoy all the benefits of global networks, and easy and convenient connections to most of the world’s major destinations, through the two global hubs in Paris (Air France) and Amsterdam (KLM).