Tag Archives: Sharjah

Sharjah International Airport handled 2,996,433 passengers during July, August and September this year, a 13 percent increase over the same period in 2015. Overall, the number of inbound, outbound, transit and transfer passengers handled during the first nine months of the year increased by 12 percent, compared to the same period last year, to total 8,344,293. Sharjah airport recorded its first million-passenger month in August, with the months of July and September falling just slightly short of the million passenger mark. Meanwhile, 20,362 aircraft take-offs and landings were handled during the July to September period, 8 percent more than the equivalent period during 2015. Airlines have added a number of new connections from Sharjah International Airport this year, including new Air Arabia routes from Sharjah to Batumi (Georgia) and to Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Indian international airlines Air India Express and Jet Airways have both launched new Sharjah routes this year catering to business travellers and tourists, plus Indian expatriates working in the UAE. Jet Airways added new daily routes to Mangaluru (IXE) and Kozhikode (CCJ), while Air India Express has introduced new flights to Mumbai (SAHAR), Chandigarh (IXC) and Tiruchirapalli (TRZ) airports. Turkish airline, AtlasGlobal, also launched a new Sharjah route in April, adding a three-times-weekly service to Istanbul Atatürk International Airport. More new airline routes are planned for the next few months including the addition of a Hyderabad to Sharjah service from Jet Airways in December 2016 and a new Sharjah to Baku service from Air Arabia scheduled for 23 March 2017. Sharjah International Airport surpassed 10 million passengers per annum for the first time during 2015 and plans to handle 25 million passengers per annum by the …

Air India Express and Jet Airways have both launched new Sharjah routes this year catering to business travellers and tourists, plus Indian expatriates working in the UAE. Jet Airways introduced a new daily route to Sharjah International Airport from Mangaluru (IXE) in India’s southern state of Karnataka in August and has just announced a new daily service from Kozhikode, or Calicut (CCJ) in Kerala, beginning 30 October 2016. Meanwhile, Kochi-headquartered Air India Express has, so far, added three new routes this year connecting Sharjah with Mumbai (SAHAR), Chandigarh (IXC) and Tiruchirapalli (TRZ) airports, bringing its total number of direct Sharjah services to seven. The low-cost airline also operates direct flights to Sharjah from Kochi (COK), Kozhikode (CCJ), Thiruvananthapuram (TRV) and Varanasi (VNS). Jet Airways also plans to launch a daily service from Hyderabad to Sharjah in December 2016. Jet Airways is India’s second largest airline operating flights to 67 destinations.

Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) and Hamriyah Free Zone both launched new marketing roadshows targeting India during the past few days, building on a busy year of promotion activities by Sharjah authorities. The SCTDA kicked off a four-city roadshow in Mumbai this week, which also visits New Delhi, Chandigarh and Bengaluru (Bangalore). The roadshow introduces seven Sharjah hotels, two destination management companies, plus leading budget carrier Air Arabia, to key Indian outbound tour operators and other industry contacts. Trade, investment and tourism from India have become a top priority for Sharjah, as its trade promotion organisations campaign widely to capitalise on growing interest in the emirate. Meanwhile, a delegation from Hamriyah Free Zone, headed by Saud Salim Al Mazrouei, Director of Hamriyah Free Zone Authority (HFZA) and Sharjah Airport International Free Zone (SAIF Zone), met with business leaders in Delhi a few days ago. Hamriyah Free Zone and SAIF Zone have both organised an extensive calendar of trade and investment promotion campaigns in India this year, visiting all major commercial centres in the country. Benefits such as 100 percent ownership, tax exemptions and allowing companies to repatriate 100 percent capital and profits have made the free zones very popular with Indian businesses. According to official estimates, about 7,000 of the 15,000 companies operating out of the two free zones are owned and controlled by Indian investors.

Air Arabia has expanded its international route network with a new service to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Starting 23 March 2017, the airline will operate four weekly flights from its primary Sharjah International Airport hub. On Thursdays and Sundays, the flight will depart Sharjah at 07:55 and arrive at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku at 10:50 local time, with the return flight scheduled from Baku at 11:30 destined to reach Sharjah at 14:10 local time. On Tuesdays and Saturdays, the flight will depart from Sharjah at 14:55 to land in Baku at 17:50 local time, and make its return journey starting 18:50 at Baku and land at Sharjah International Airport at 21:30 local time. The launch of the new flights follows a joint cooperation between Air Arabia, Azerbajian Airlines and local authorities aimed at promoting the new route connecting Baku and Sharjah. Sitting on the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Azerbaijan’s largest city also serves as the country’s financial nerve centre. Baku invites business and leisure travellers to its unique urban setting where ancient stone mansions co-exist with newly developed skyscrapers and mosques that stand as architectural marvels.

Air India Express, the Kochi-headquartered budget arm of Air India, is expected to add two new routes to Sharjah International Airport next month, bringing the total number of its routes between Sharjah and Indian destinations up to seven. The airline will introduce three non-stop flights per week each from Chandigarh (IXC), the state capital of Punjab and Haryana, and from Tiruchirapalli (TRZ) in Tamil Nadu state. India is one of the United Arab Emirates’ leading trade partners, accounting for some 9.8 percent of the country’s total non-oil trade, buying 14.9 percent of the Emirates’ exports and 8.7 percent of its re-exports. The total volume of bilateral trade between India and the UAE is expected to increase from $60 billion in 2014 to $100 billion by the year 2020. India is also the largest single origin of investors for Sharjah’s Hamriyah Free Zone and Sharjah International Airport Free Zone (SAIF Zone). Air India Express has been expanding its services to destinations in the UAE, including daily Mumbai-Dubai, Mumbai-Sharjah, New Delhi-Dubai and New Delhi-Abu Dhabi routes, which it added earlier this year. According to the airline, the number of its weekly flights between India and the UAE increased from 107 flights to 146 flights per week before the summer. The low-cost airline currently operates five routes with a total of 15 weekly flights to Sharjah International Airport. Air India Express now flies direct to Sharjah from Kochi (COK), Kozhikode (CCJ), Mumbai (SAHAR), New Delhi (DEL), Thiruvananthapuram (TRV) and Varanasi (VNS. India is well connected to Sharjah, with Sharjah-headquartered Air Arabia operating flights between Sharjah and 13 Indian destinations. Jet Airways, India’s second largest airline, operates direct daily flights on Sharjah-Kochi and Sharjah-Mangaluru …

The Emirate of Sharjah has registered a 7 percent increase in hotel revenues, reaching AED 378 million ($103m) during the first six months of 2016, according to the latest figures from Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA). The authority has been targeting markets identified in its strategic marketing plan and says that H1 2016 hotel statistics show a 19 percent increase from those markets, compared with H1 2015. The SCTDA announced its Sharjah Tourism Vision 2021 tourism development strategy in 2015, which aims to attract more than 10 million tourists to the emirate by year 2021. A total of 878,006 visitors booked accommodation in Sharjah during the first half of 2016, compared with about one million visitors registered during the first half of 2015. Sharjah guests stayed a total number of 1.99 million hotel nights from 1st January to 30th June 2016 China is now Sharjah’s fastest growing tourism market. The SCDTA has recently stepped up marketing efforts in China, opening up a representative office, recruiting Chinese staff and adding a Chinese language website to Sharjah’s tourism portal. The emirate saw a 78 percent increase in Chinese visitors during 2015 and, this year, has seen a 73.2 percent increase in Chinese tourist numbers during the first six months. Overall, the largest numbers of visitors during the first six months of this year came from the GCC which accounted for nearly 220,000 hotel guests or about 25 percent of the total. Asia provided the second largest source of tourists, showing a 12 percent increase compared to H1 2015. Meanwhile, 180,768 registered Sharjah hotel guests came from Europe, accounting for about 21 percent of the total.New flight routes to Pakistan also …

Commercial passenger traffic at Sharjah International Airport increased by 11.55 percent during the first half of this year, compared with the same period in 2015, according to Sharjah Airport Authority. A total of 5.35 million passengers passed through the airport from January to June 2016, compared to 4.79 million in the same period last year. Aircraft movements at Sharjah airport increased by 5.74 percent from 34,270 take-offs and landings during the first six months of 2015 to more than 36,237 during the same period of 2016. The freight handled for the same period of this year recorded 92,000 tons. Sharjah International Airport’s passenger growth is underpinned by the ongoing expansion of Sharjah-headquartered Air Arabia, the largest low-cost carrier operator in the Middle East and North Africa. The airline has expanded its route network to more than 120 destinations, launching five new international routes since the beginning of 2016, including two new routes from its Sharjah hub. Sharjah International Airport is already a hub for a number of international passenger and cargo airlines including Air Arabia, Air India, Air India Express, Jet Airways (India), Qatar Airways, SpiceJet (India) and Sri Lankan Airlines. Turkish airline AtlasGlobal launched a new daily service between Istanbul Atatürk International Airport and Sharjah International Airport earlier this year, while Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, will add a new daily route from Mangaluru (Mangalore) in southern India to Sharjah from 7 August 2016. Business aviation services company Gama Aviation has also expanded its fixed base operation (FBO) at Sharjah International Airport, establishing its own executive aviation terminal and investing in a new maintenance hangar. The company’s private aviation services in Sharjah are highly competitive with other hubs …

In order to strengthen trade ties between Sharjah and United Kingdom; Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) introduced Sharjah’s investment proposition to businesses in United Kingdom last month, participating in the second edition of the GCC-British Economic Forum, which took place on 21 July in London. Organised by the Arab British Chamber of Commerce and hosted in London, the forum was attended by senior officials, executives, and investors from Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Held under the theme ‘Vision, Challenges and Ambitions: Integration Prospects for a Better Future,’ the one-day event was supported by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and UK Trade & Investment. Shurooq CEO H.E. Marwan bin Jassim Al Sarkal and Shurooq Head of Investment Promotion Mohammed Juma Al Musharrakh also participated in ‘Social and Economic Development’ panel session of the event. Sharjah Investment and Development Authority has stepped up its trade and investment promotion efforts in the UK, opening a permanent office in London earlier this year. Last year the Authority signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) to encourage, promote and facilitate investment and development cooperation between Sharjah and the United Kingdom. In April 2016, Shurooq held ‘Sharjah Day’ in London, a business–to-business (B2B) forum aimed at introducing British investors and businesspersons to investment opportunities in Sharjah, with an emphasis on the many projects run by Shurooq.

Jet Airways has announced that it will launch a new daily route from Mangaluru (Mangalore) in southern India to Sharjah in the UAE from August 7, 2016. Mangaluru is the main port city of Karnataka, India’s 12th largest state by population. Jet Airways is India’s second largest airline operating flights to 73 destinations, including 22 international flights and 51 domestic flights. Beginning in August, the Indian carrier will fly daily from Mangaluru at 9.30 am, arriving in Sharjah International Airport at 11.45am local time. Return flights will leave Sharjah at 12.45 pm and reach Mangaluru at 5.55pm. Jet already operates daily direct flights from Kochi in the Indian state of Kerala to Sharjah.

The lucrative opportunities for investment between Sharjah and Australia were the main item on the agenda at a “Sharjah-Australia Roundtable” organised by Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq), in association with the Australian Business Council in Dubai (ABCD), the Australian Trade Commission and Australia Unlimited, at the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI). The roundtable was Shurooq’s latest initiative in its extensive programme designed to highlight Sharjah’s rewarding investment climate, with Shurooq representatives visiting four continents in the past few months as part of its on-going promotional strategy for the emirate. The most recent activity in Shurooq’s global investment promotion agenda saw His Excellency Gerard Seeber, Australia Consul General in Dubai and Senior Trade Commissioner MENA region and His Excellency Marwan bin Jassim Al Sarkal, CEO, Shurooq, sitting down with Penny Couchman, Chairperson of ABCD and several Australian businesspersons, including spokespersons from Antipodean enterprises operating in the UAE. The day-long event involved the representatives discussing the emirate’s array of fertile sectors for investment, including tourism, environment, health and transport.