Category Archives: Aviation

The airline’s award-winning double-decker A380s are the most customised aircraft of their kind in commercial service and feature unique innovations such as The Residence – a three-room living space for up to two guests, including a living room, a private shower-room, and a bedroom. The aircraft also boasts nine First Apartments, 70 Business Studios, a Lobby Lounge, and 415 Economy Smart Seats. Etihad Airways operates its fleet of Airbus A380s on flights from the UAE capital to London, Sydney, New York, and from 1 July, Paris. Employees from Etihad Airways and Airbus gathered at the European plane-maker’s Hamburg Finkenwerder plant in Germany, where the aircraft was officially handed over to the UAE national airline before commencing its delivery flight to Abu Dhabi.

Cebu Pacific Air will soon suspend its service to and from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Doha, Qatar. CEB will fly the last of its four-times-a-week service from Manila to Kuwait on June 13, 2017, and its Kuwait-Manila flight on June 14, 2017. The thrice-weekly Manila-Doha-Manila route will have its last flight on July 1, 2017; while CEB’s last flight from Manila to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia will depart on July 2, 2017, while the Riyadh-Manila flight will leave on July 3, 2017. CEB will retain its other long-haul services to and from Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Sydney, Australia, with a view to increasing frequencies to these destinations in the future. The airline also flies to 24 other international destinations across Asia and USA; as well as 37 domestic destinations. Passengers affected by the suspension of CEB service in Doha, Riyadh and Kuwait are being contacted. Options are being provided to minimize the disruption, which include rebooking passengers on flights with other airlines or on earlier travel dates with CEB; a full refund; or placing the full value of the ticket in a travel fund for future use.

Turkish Airlines launched new flights from various cities in the Middle East to key tourist destinations in Turkey. The new direct flights will be launched from the cities of Saudi Arabia including Jeddah now with connecting flights to Ankara and Trabzon; Riyadh with flights to Antalya and Trabzon; and from Medina to Ankara. Additional connecting flights include the cities of Dammam, Yanbu, and Al Qassim all travelling to Trabzon. Kuwait City is another city benefitting from the new flights and now connecting travellers from the country to Trabzon, Izmir, Antalya and Bodrum. Additionally passengers from the cities of Erbil, Baghdad and Sulaymaniyah in Iraq and Amman, Jordan will also be able to travel directly to their preferred destination in Turkey. Residents from Erbil will be connected to Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, and Antalya, whereas travellers from Baghdad, Sulaymaniyah and Amman will be provided flights with a direct connection to Antalya. Bilal Ekşi, Deputy Chairman and CEO, Turkish Airlines, said, “We are always looking to provide our passengers with the most convenient and time-efficient way of travel. Tourists worldwide have been continuously increasing due to the fantastic attractions and features provided by all our Turkish cities. As we move forward, our goal will be to create these direct flights from all the markets which we operate in globally so that travellers can now fly directly to their destination of choice.”

Emirates will be introducing a second daily A380 service between Dubai and Birmingham, beginning October 29, 2017. Flight EK39/40, currently operated by a Boeing 777, will now be operated by the Emirates A380, adding to the existing daily A380 already operating on the route. This means that from October, the airline will operate a twice-daily, all-A380 service to the Midlands. Emirates’ decision to use a double-daily A380 service was in part driven by huge demand from passengers to travel on the iconic aircraft. Since the first A380 service from Dubai to Birmingham launched on March 27, 2016, over 300,000 passengers have already flown on the aircraft between the two cities. The A380’s popularity is partly due to the fact that it features the widest individual in-seat economy class screens in the industry, measuring in at 13.3 inches and offers over 2,500 channels on the inflight entertainment system. And with Emirates offering A380 services to a number of key destinations in the East such as Auckland, Bangkok, Beijing, Perth, Singapore and Sydney, passengers travelling beyond Dubai have an increased opportunity to fly on the A380 on both legs of their journey.

Effective from July 1 2017, Emirates will provide an all-A380 service on its Beijing (PEK) and Shanghai (PVG) services when it upgrades the second daily flights, EK308/EK309 on its PEK route and EK304/305 on its PVG route, replacing the current Boeing 777-300ER operations. The move will increase capacity to both Beijing and Shanghai, offering Emirates passengers even more seamless A380-to-A380 connections between the two Chinese cities and over 30 international points, including 18 points in the UK and Europe, via its hub in Dubai. This upgrade strengthens Emirates’ overall mainland China offering, which also includes services to Guangzhou, Yinchuan and Zhengzhou. The additional seats on the routes will support more business and leisure travel departing from and arriving in China, while offering passengers an exceptional global travel experience. The popular Emirates A380, which offers up to 519 seats in a three class configuration on Chinese routes, now flies to seven North Asian cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul in South Korea and Narita, Japan.

Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia), the national carrier of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is entering into an agreement with Expedia Affiliate Network (EAN) in the launch of Saudia Holidays to offer tailored, world-class travel packages to the airline’s passengers. Saudia, which carried more than 29 million passengers last year, and has a network of 86 domestic and international destinations, is launching Saudia Holidays to provide exceptional value and choice across the Kingdom and internationally. Through its agreement with EAN, Saudia Holidays will offer travellers access to more than 260,000 quality hotel accommodations in over 29,000 destinations, including Makkah, Jeddah, Riyadh, Dubai, London, Paris and New York. It will access EAN’s full range of preferential rates and deals, creating competitive pricing for Saudia Holidays’ customers.  EAN was selected because of its worldwide accommodation portfolio, its dynamic packaging strengths and the flexibility of its technology, which includes the ability for travelers to pay for a hotel reservation at the time of booking or upon arrival. Also key was EAN’s ability to offer a fully outsourced, turnkey solution in collaboration with Bahrain-based travel technology and services specialist TCIG. Together, the businesses’ responsibilities include building and maintaining the Saudia Holidays ecommerce website; the fulfilment of air, hotel and vehicle reservations; the operation of customer call centres; and the delivery of outstanding service to all Saudia Holidays customers.f

Leading global business aviation company Deer Jet, presented the world’s first 787 ‘Dream Jet’, with its Middle East debut, making a stopover at Doha International Airport. The ‘flying’ visit is part of a series of showcases across the globe in Deer Jet’s “Dreams Encounter the World” tour of key international charter destinations. Established 22 years ago as the very first business jet operator in China, Deer Jet has been dedicated to serving the global premium business travel market, including Middle East royal families since 2013. Deer Jet is set to serve the market across the GCC and wider Middle East region, with buyers from Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia expected to be key markets for the company. According to research by industry expert Hardy Sohanpal, in collaboration with Wealth-X and WingXAdvance, the Middle East has over 5,975 UHNW individuals (defined as having at least $30 million in assets) with a combined net worth of US$995 billion, further underscoring the company’s decision to target the region. Frank Fang, Vice President, Deer Jet, said, “We are delighted to bring this unique aircraft to Doha. Its showcases the signature service of Deer Jet which is inspired by the values of performance, elegance and distinction. With the 787 Dream Jet, we are proud to serve discerning business and leisure travellers in the Middle East and we recognise this market as one of the largest in the world for premium travel. Our goal is to provide the best flying experience for our customers and make travel an art.”

Huawei and Hamad International Airport (HIA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), formalising a strategic partnership to enable the airport’s digital transformation. The objective is to accelerate digital transformation at Hamad International Airport and to share the solutions with the community for wider benefit of the air transport industry. The MoU between HIA and Huawei provides a broad framework for collaboration between for co-creation of innovative concepts, prototypes and solutions using cutting-edge technologies, particularly in the areas of IoT and autonomous machines, to address real business challenges and opportunities. Through this cooperation, HIA aims to improve the passenger experience, enhance security and communication, and increase operational efficiency. Commenting on the cooperation with Huawei, Eng. Badr Mohammed Al Meer, Chief Operating Officer at HIA said: “Innovative technology will continue to drive digital transformation at Hamad International Airport. Through this strategic alliance with Huawei, which also provides access to its eco-system of niche partners, we aim to accelerate our journey and to demonstrate our commitment to the industry by sharing viable concepts and solutions that may be developed through this partnership”. Xilin Yuan, President of the Transportation Sector of Huawei’s Enterprise Business Group, commented: “It is a great pleasure for Huawei to collaborate with Hamad International Airport to enable a Smart Airport that can meet the future demands of passenger flows as well as the needs of digital-savvy customers. By placing digital transformation at the heart of its commercial strategy, HIA will deliver a user-centric connected experience to continue delighting its customers.”

Emirates will introduce a third daily service to Brisbane, Australia from December 1,2017, complementing Emirates’ existing two daily services. The direct service, to be operated on a B777-200LR aircraft with eight seats in First Class, 42 in Business Class and 216 in Economy Class, will increase capacity on the route by 3,724 seats a week, inbound and outbound between Brisbane and Emirates’ hub Dubai. This will give passengers in the United Kingdom, France and North America greater access to Australia with just one stop in Dubai as part of Emirates’ global route network. The inbound service EK430 will depart Dubai at 22:00 hrs, arriving in Brisbane at 18:15hrs the following day. While the outbound flight EK431 will depart Brisbane at 22:25 hrs, arriving in Dubai at 07:00hrs the following day. The service will operate alongside two existing daily services to Dubai. Flights EK434 and EK435 operate non-stop between Dubai and Brisbane and onwards to Auckland, New Zealand, while flights EK432 and EK433 operate between Dubai and Brisbane via Singapore. Additionally, with codeshare partner Qantas, Emirates offers services to Singapore twice daily from Brisbane. The news comes as Emirates announced it would be upgauging its third daily service to Melbourne from a B777-300ER to an A380 operation from 25 March 2018, allowing passengers to travel aboard Emirates’ A380 on all three daily flights between Melbourne and Dubai.

His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airlines and Group officially inaugurated the 17th Airport Show 2017. He stated,  “the aviation industry expansion in the Middle East continues to surpass average global growth rates. Future projections are equally promising and are behind the ongoing and considerable investment in aircraft, technology and infrastructure. The Airport Show brings together solution providers from around the world giving them the opportunity to explore the latest trends and bring forward innovative products and services designed to support ongoing industry growth and service enhancements.” The 3-day Airport Show, expected to be attended by over 7,500 aviation industry professionals, will bring more than 300 companies from more than 50 countries showcasing a diverse portfolio of technologies and innovative solutions amid rapidly growing Middle East aviation industry and massive regional aviation infrastructure investments. This year’s show will consist of  have Global Airport Leaders Forum (GALF), World Travel Catering and Onboard Services Expo (WTCEME) and Women in Aviation Middle East General Assembly as co-located events. Huawei hosted a ‘Global Aviation Summit’ on May 15, which witnessed discussions on innovative ICT constructions in the aviation industry. The Airport Show will also feature a ‘New Security Day’ on May 17 where experts will discuss latest security solutions and systems live on stage as well as meet the suppliers.