The Chairman of Etihad Aviation Group, His Excellency Mohamed Mubarak Fadhel Al Mazrouei, confirmed the appointment of Tony Douglas as Group Chief Executive Officer, who will join the company in January 2018. Douglas joins Etihad from the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence, where he has served as CEO of the Defence Equipment and Support department, responsible for procuring and supporting all the equipment and services for the British Armed Forces. In the UK, he held senior positions with airport operator BAA, and as Chief Operating Officer and Group Chief Executive designate of Laing O’Rourke. His roles under airport operator BAA included Managing Director of the Heathrow Terminal 5 project, Group Supply Chain Director, Group Technical Director, and CEO of Heathrow Airport. Previously, Douglas held senior positions in the UAE, most notably as CEO of Abu Dhabi Airports Company and as CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports Company where he was responsible for the successful delivery of Khalifa Port. As Group CEO, Mr. Douglas will work with the Board and leadership team to expand and implement a range of strategic initiatives to position Etihad for sustained success in an increasingly competitive regional and global aviation market.   The divisional CEOs will report directly to Douglas, including Peter Baumgartner, CEO of Etihad Airways; Chris Youlten, Managing Director of Etihad Airport Services; Abdul Khaliq Saeed, CEO of Etihad Airways Engineering; Gavin Halliday, Managing Director of Hala Group; and Robin Kamark who joins as CEO, Airline Equity Partners in October 2017.

Royal Jordanian will reportedly temporarily suspend its flights to Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, in northern Iraq, starting from 6 pm (Amman local time) on September 29, 2017. The airline’s decision came after a request from the Iraqi authorities to all airlines flying to Erbil and Sulaymaniyah to stop operating to these two cities until further notice. Royal Jordanian operates 10 weekly flights to Erbil and three weekly flights to Sulaymaniyah. It runs 15 weekly flights to Baghdad and six to Basra.

The Turkish Airlines Corporate Club Conference, hosted by Turkish Airlines in partnership with the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), took place in Istanbul from September 25-26 at the Hilton Istanbul Bomonti Hotel. The event welcomed over 500 international guests to network and enjoy true Turkish hospitality while learning about the latest offerings and key benefits of the Turkish Airlines Corporate Club. The conference presented global trends in the business travel segment, as well as highlighted the latest developments in the aviation industry. This year the theme was ‘Traveler Centricity’. Hundreds of decision makers and key players from the global business travel community are in Istanbul for a line-up of distinguished speakers as well as to learn how Turkish Airlines Corporate Club can add more value to their business. Attendees were welcomed by Chairman of the Board and the Executive Committee of Turkish Airlines, M. İlker Aycı and keynote speaker Ron Kaufman who kicked off the one-day event. Panel speakers included Arda Ermut, President of the Investment Support and Promotion Agency, Serra Akçaoğlu, CEO and Board Member of Citibank Turkey and Tankut Turnaoğlu, Vice President & General Manager of P&G Turkey & Caucasus. Commenting on the conference, Chairman of the Board and Executive Committee of Turkish Airlines, M. İlker Aycı said, “We are thrilled to welcome hundreds of high-ranking professionals and business travel leaders from all over the world to Istanbul for this unique event. Turkish Airlines Corporate Club Conference provides a great opportunity to learn the numerous advantages our renewed corporate travel program that offers to its members the latest trends in the business travel industry.”

A total of 106,693 Russian guests stayed at hotels in Sharjah during the first six months of 2017 compared to 54,017 guests during the same period last year, according to a report by the Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA). This is a welcome sign of recovery of one of the most important source markets for the emirate of Sharjah. The emirate’s tourism market was hard hit by the decline of Russia’s outbound tourism in 2014-2015, due to a steep drop in value of the Russian currency in 16 years. Global outbound tourism from Russia fell by 15 per cent in 2014, by almost 20 per cent in 2015 and by 8 per cent last year. Meanwhile, Sharjah, which received 400,000 Russian hotel guests during 2014, saw the numbers of Russian hotel guests drop to 54,000 in 2015. The results from the first half of this year now confirm Russia’s position as of Sharjah’s top two fasted growing inbound tourism markets. China has, so far, proved to be the emirate’s most consistent growth market increasing from nearly 31,000 in H1 2015 to 49,000 in H1 2016 and reaching 62,000 during the first half of this year. According to SCTDA statements, Sharjah’s hotels enjoyed a 70 percent occupancy rate from January to June this year and registered a total of 885,000 hotel guests during the period. China, India, Oman, Russia and Saudi Arabia were the biggest inbound tourism markets for Sharjah during the first half of 2017.

The Crown Prince of Dubai, HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, took the maiden ‘Autonomous Air Taxi’ on a test drive near the Jumeirah Beach Park. The two-seater AAT, capable of transporting people without human intervention or a pilot, will soon be made available by Dubai’s transport services department. The drone air taxi has been supplied by Volocopter, a Germany-based specialist manufacturer of autonomous air vehicles. “After the remarkable success of the first driverless metro in the region, we are glad to witness today the test flight of the Autonomous Air Taxi,” said HH Sheikh Hamdan. “This is another testament to our commitment to driving positive change. We are constantly exploring opportunities to serve the community and advance the prosperity and happiness of society.” He further said that adopting advanced innovative technologies and applications that help to enhance services for the community is key to topping global competitiveness rankings. “Encouraging innovation and adopting the latest technologies contribute not only to the country’s development but also build bridges into the future,” he added. HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman of Emirates Group; HE Mohammad bin Abdullah Al Gergawi, UAE Minister of Cabinet Affairs and The Future; and HE Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, UAE Minister of Economy and Chairman of the General Civil Aviation Authority also attended the test flight.

Abu Dhabi witnessed a double digit increase in the number of hotel guests during August compared to the same period in 2016, helping to drive the total number of guests staying in the emirate to more than 3.1 million for the first eight months of the year. Figures released by the Department of Culture and Tourism, formerly known as Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority, reveal that 426,912 hotel guests stayed at the emirate’s 166 hotels and hotel apartments in August, a rise of 13 per centover the same month last year. The total number of hotel guests so far in 2016 is up 7 per cent in comparison to the comparable time frame in 2016, with occupancy standing at 68 per cent. H.E. Saif Saeed Ghobash, Director General, Department of Culture and Tourism, said: “We are encouraged by August’s figures and the increased growth, during a month which is traditionally a quieter time of the year for hotel guests. Our annual Abu Dhabi Summer Season, which ran from July 20th until August 20th, once again proved highly popular with domestic visitors and we saw key international markets all show notable growth during the month due to concentrated promotional and marketing campaigns locally, regionally and internationally. “As the year moves on, we expect to see further progress, not least due to the highly-anticipated opening of Louvre Abu Dhabi on November 11th which has rightly attracted huge interest from across the world. We still have some opportunities to increase length-of-stay at our hotels and maintain revenues, but we are actively addressing these things as we constantly strive to improve our destination’s appeal with concerted international marketing campaigns in tandem with our 11 overseas offices.”

flydubai is adding Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, to their network from November 1, 2017. With two flights a week, the flights include a stopover in Sarajevo, a popular destination on the flydubai network. Montenegro is fast becoming a much loved destination for the UAE nationals and expats. Podgorica joins the airlines network in Central and Eastern Europe, which includes Belgrade, Bratislava, Bucharest, Prague, Skopje, Sarajevo and Sofia. flydubai will become the only UAE-based carrier to offer direct air links to Podgorica. Commenting on the launch, Ghaith Al Ghaith Chief Executive Officer of flydubai, said: “With the launch of our flights to Podgorica, we continue to offer passengers more ways to explore and discover Montenegro. The popularity of our summer flights to Tivat has shown a continuous demand for more access to this part of the world and we are delighted to be offering flights to Montenegro on a regular basis.” “With the launch of this new route, flydubai will become the first airline to offer regular services between Podgorica and Sarajevo,” said Jeyhun Efendi, Senior Vice President Commercial (UAE, EU, ME, CIS) at flydubai. “We look forward to the new opportunities that this will provide along with the flows of trade and tourism that these flights can offer.”

Emirates will deploy three additional flights per week to the Swedish capital Stockholm from December 8, 2017. The new scheduled flights will be added to meet the growing demand for travel on the route, particularly during the winter season. The introduction of the three additional flights on every Friday, Saturday and Sunday is in response to the increased demand. The new Emirates flight EK155 will depart Dubai at 1500 hours, arriving in Stockholm Arlanda Airport at 1845 hours. The return flight EK156 will depart ARN at 2110 arriving at Dubai International Airport at 0630 the following day. The timing of the three additional flights provides easier connections between Stockholm and a number of popular East Asian and African destinations. Travellers can now seamlessly connect, with a short transit through Emirates’ Dubai hub, with popular destinations such as Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, Colombo in Sri Lanka, Manila in the Philippines and Cape Town and Durban in South Africa. Passengers can now also connect to Emirates’ direct flight to Auckland in New Zealand with travel times to Indian Ocean destinations including Mauritius, the Maldives (Male) and the Seychelles (Mahé) also benefitting from the improved flight connectivity. The timing of the new flights also makes Dubai itself an even more favourable option for a long weekend or short break, the early morning arrival time allowing travellers from Sweden the whole day to kick start a holiday or short break in the U.A.E.

Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport reached 8,233,311 in August 2017 compared to 7,727,105 recorded in the same month last year, an increase of 6.6 per cent. As per the monthly traffic report of Dubai Airports, the year-to-date traffic totalled 59,353,368 passengers up 6.3 per cent compared to 55,851,148* recorded during the first eight months of 2016. During August, in terms of passenger volumes, India remained the top destination country with 1,044,730 passengers in August, followed by the UK (611,254 passengers) and Saudi Arabia (610,434 passengers). South America (27.4%) was the fastest expanding market in terms of percentage growth followed by Asia (21.9%), and Eastern Europe (18.8%). London was the top destination city with 377,130 passengers followed closely by Kuwait (284,151 passengers) and Mumbai (211,564 passengers). The average number of passengers per flight during the month remained high at 246, up 7.2% compared to 229 recorded in August 2016. Paul Griffiths, CEO, Dubai Airports, said, “We are very pleased with the way things are shaping up this year, not only in terms of growth, which has been robust with passenger numbers exceeding the 8-million mark three times – in January, July and August, but also with our success in significantly enhancing the airport experience with initiatives such as the launch of the world’s fastest free airport Wi-Fi, streaming entertainment service ICFlix, quicker passport control and shorter wait times in queues thanks to cutting edge technology.”

InterGlobe Air Transport (IGAT), through its parent company – The Navigator Tourism and Travel LLC, has been appointed as the exclusive representation partner in the UAE for Sonhando, a Portuguese Destination Management Company (DMC) with effect from October 1, 2017.  The Navigator shall be responsible for developing and promoting outbound tourism to Portugal from the UAE through B2B, B2C and B2E channels. Sonhando, a part of the renowned Pestana Group, is a leading DMC and offers comprehensive tourism options – both packages and customised tailor-made itineraries across Portugal.  The company specializes in multiple theme based holiday options such as family, honeymoon, golf vacations, adventure tourism and beach specials to name a few. InterGlobe Air Transport, is a leading airline management company headquartered in India and assists world’s leading airlines and tourism/leisure companies in setting up of operations and successful execution. The Navigator Tourism and Travel LLC, is its group company in the UAE and specializes in airline, tourism & destination promotion. Navneet Jaggi, Vice-President Middle East, InterGlobe Air Transport, said, “We believe that destinations aren’t about geography, they’re about psychology, they’re about a feeling. The well-travelled clients from this region yearn for newer destinations and ‘wow’ experiences and we feel that Portugal as a destination has all the ingredients of being the next big outbound leisure and MICE destination from UAE.  In Sonhando, we believe, we have just the right partner to help us deliver the same level of customer service that InterGlobe has always been known for. We’re extremely excited about this partnership.” José Manuel Antunes, Director General of Sonhando said- “Together with Pestana Group and Euro Atlantic Airways as a part of our group, we have, over the …