Category Archives: Aviation

Emirates will resume its flagship A380 service between Dubai and Narita from March 26, 2017. This follows the airline’s recent A380 deployment to Moscow, and will take place after the upcoming launch of A380 services to Johannesburg. It will also coincide with the launch of A380 services between Dubai and Casablanca. Emirates will deploy its three-class A380 on the Narita route, offering a total of 489 seats, with 14 private suites in First Class, 76 mini pods with lie-flat seats in Business Class and 399 spacious seats in Economy Class, increasing capacity per flight by more than 135 passengers compared to the current Boeing 777-300ER. Flight EK318 will depart Dubai at 02:40 and arrive in Narita at 17:35 daily. Return flight EK319 will depart Narita on Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 22:00 and arrive in Dubai at 04:15 the next day, while on Tuesday and Wednesday, it will depart Narita at 21:20 and arrive in Dubai at 03:35 the next day. All times are local. Narita will join more than 40 destinations on Emirates’ extensive global network served by its A380 aircraft, including Paris, Rome, Milan, Madrid, London and Mauritius. Emirates currently operates a three-class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on its daily flights between Narita and Dubai. The resumption of Emirates’ A380 service to Narita makes it possible for Japanese travellers to fly only on A380s to their final destinations, particularly when travelling to European cities, via Dubai.

Dubai Airports, operator of Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Bureau Dubai Expo 2020 to ensure a world-class experience for the millions of guests that will visit Dubai during the event. Following the signing of the MoU the airport operator is now an official supporter of Dubai Expo 2020. As part of the agreement, Dubai Airports will engage with the Expo 2020 team and airport stakeholders to create an ‘expo experience’ inside the airport which will set the tone for visitors and entice transfer passengers to return or stopover. Additionally, as part of its DXB Plus programme and service strategy, Dubai Airports will work with airport stakeholders to ensure minimal queuing and fast and convenient passage through both airports. Dubai Airports recently launched two major projects that will provide the capacity required for Expo 2020 and onwards. The first, DXB Plus, is designed to deliver a consistent and differentiated customer experience while boosting capacity to 118 million by 2023 without adding any additional significant infrastructure. Capacity gains and service enhancements will be achieved through streamline, customer-centric processes and new technology. The second, also currently underway, will see DWC’s passenger terminal building expanded from the current 5 million passengers per year to 26 million by the end of next year.  As part of the DWC expansion programme the check-in area, baggage and immigration halls, as well as security screening areas, will be substantially expanded while the forecourt will be improved to ensure easier access to the parking and drop-off areas. Once complete the passenger terminal will provide a total of 24 boarding gates, 7 baggage reclaim carousels and 104 check-in desks.

The 2017 edition of Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature will be held from March 3-11, and will see 160 authors from more than 30 countries conducting 250 sessions. The Festival is held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President & Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and in partnership with Emirates Airline and the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated Authority for heritage, arts, and culture. The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is the Middle East’s largest celebration of the written and spoken word. In nine short years the Festival has grown into the UAE’s premier literary festival, hosting international and regional writers, poets, thinkers and speakers from around the world.

Hamad International Airport (HIA) has joined the top tier of global airports becoming the sixth airport in the world to receive the ‘5-Star Airport’ designation by Skytrax, the London-based aviation institute and the gold standard for conveying the passenger’s voice in airport and airline rankings. This makes HIA the first ever airport in the Middle East to earn this acclaimed title. The prestigious 5-Star Airport rating is awarded to airports achieving the highest, overall Quality Performance. The 5-Star Airport rating recognises those airports providing excellent facilities for customers combined with high quality airport staff service. Airport Quality ranking covers front-line areas for departures, arrival and transfer, including airport facilities, customer service, security, immigration, shop outlets and food and beverage facilities. The highest rating – five stars – has previously only been awarded to five other airports worldwide: Singapore, Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo-Haneda and Munich.

Major General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, Director-General of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners’ Affairs in Dubai, revealed that Dubai International airports received 105, 326 passengers in one day for the first time. Major General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri expressed his happiness about this achievement consisting of receiving this huge number of passengers to UAE, which reflects UAE’s vision to make of Dubai a place where the world’s cultures meet and interact. Major General Al Marri made this statement as he presented statistics about the numbers of passengers coming and traveling from Dubai on New Year’s Eve. He stated that the total number of passengers during the period from December 28th to December 31st 2016 reached 669,093 passengers, noting that the numbers of travelers coming to Dubai reached 389,290 while the travelers from Dubai reached 288,803. He said that Dubai seeks to accomplish the entry and departure procedures for travelers according to the best standards to guarantee their satisfaction. He also noted that a special team was assigned to facilitate these procedures during holiday’s period to guarantee speeding the process.

Flynas flight from Dammam touched down at Abu Dhabi International Airport marking the start of its new direct operation between Abu Dhabi and Dammam with four weekly flights. Abu Dhabi Airports and Flynas teams celebrate the start of the airline’s new operation from the capital’s airport, linking Dammam with Abu Dhabi with four weekly direct flights.

Dubai Airports welcomed Sichuan Airlines’ first direct flight from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport to Dubai International (DXB) with a traditional water salute. The airline, which operates into DXB’s Concourse D, offers two weekly flights on Airbus A330. Sichuan Airlines joined DXB’s list of 90 international airlines in September 2015 when the carrier launched flights between Chengdu and Dubai via Yinchuan Hedong International Airport. A direct connection to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, which is a major international airport serving the capital of China’s Sichuan province, is a significant addition to DXB’s connectivity which spans 240 destinations across six continents.

LATAM Airlines Group S.A. and Qatar Airways, both members of the oneworld alliance, announced that Qatar Airways, through its wholly owned subsidiary Qatar Airways Investments (UK) Ltd, completed its acquisition of 10 per cent of LATAM reaching a total of 60,837,452 shares. The preemptive rights offering of 61,316,424 new shares, at a price per share of US$10, ended on December 23, 2016, in which Qatar subscribed shares of LATAM through its wholly-owned subsidiary Qatar Airways Investments (UK) Ltd. (“Qatar”), in its capacity as assignee of the preemptive right assigned by the shareholders of the Cueto, Amaro, Eblen and Bethia Groups to Qatar, as agreed between LATAM and Qatar, and other minority shareholders subscribed 12,140 shares of LATAM.

A new service that enables the use of Emirates ID cards to pass through automated immigration gates at Dubai International (DXB) is gaining popularity, with more than 234,000 UAE residents using it during its phased roll out. Completely free of charge and requiring no pre-registration, the new service makes passing through immigration Smart Gates fast and convenient for all UAE residents. The first of its kind in the region, it is the result of the joint efforts of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA), the Emirates Identity Authority and Dubai Airports. The new service, available on all 127 Smart Gates across all three terminals at Dubai International, has been enabled by creating a secure and efficient link between various operational systems and databases managed by Emirates Identity Authority, GDRFA and Dubai Airports. Upon inserting the Emirates ID Card into the Smart Gate, the system can quickly, accurately and efficiently confirm the identity, travel plans and eligibility of UAE residents to enter and depart the country.

Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH) received close to 1.9 million passengers in November, representing a 4.4% increase in airport traffic compared with November 2015. Abu Dhabi Airports’ traffic figures also show consistent growth throughout the year, with total AUH passenger numbers having increased by 5.3% on the previous year. More than 22 million travellers have used AUH so far during 2016. Total passenger traffic in November reached 1,860,207 which was a 38.6 per cent increase in passenger traffic through Terminal 3 compared to the same month last year, reaching 1,317,591. Traffic to and from Saudi Arabia saw a large surge compared to the previous year, with a significant increase of 43.5 per cent and the cargo services experienced growth of 1.3 per cent this year (2016) compared to November 2015.