The deadly attack on a high-end Nairobi shopping mall on Saturday put the safety of malls around the world into the spotlight and could trigger moves to improve security and make it more visible. “They’re obviously going to ramp up security,” said Malachy Kavanagh, a spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a U.S.-based trade group of mall and shopping center owners, adding that he expected […]
Jebel Ali Free Zone FZE cut the price on a 4.4 billion dirham ($1.2 billion) Islamic loan by 1.25 percentage points, reducing rates after the emirate’s default risk fell. Jebel Ali Free Zone and Dubai Duty Free, the world’s biggest’ airport retailer, are among companies in the emirate that have lowered rates on their loans. Dubai’s five-year credit default swaps, contract insuring the sheikhdom’s debt against default, […]
Payment defaults by grounded Indian carrier Kingfisher (KAIR) Airlines Ltd. are prompting aircraft lessors to demand a premium to cover risks in the South Asian country. Companies leasing out planes are insisting on a one-year security deposit instead of the usual three-month cover in addition to a commitment to hire the aircraft for as long as nine years, said two officials of Air India Ltd. The state-owned […]
Dubai International Airport is working to increase capacity to help accommodate more of the Airbus SAS A380 super-jumbo for Emirates, the largest operator of the double-decker jet, the airline’s chairman said. The expansion may help the Middle Eastern hub become the word’s busiest airport by next year, Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum told reporters today at the airport. “We are going according to plan […]
Dubai Duty Free is planning to borrow $750 million from a syndicate of international banks in the coming weeks to help further finance the expansion of Dubai’s international airport, the company’s executive vice chairman Colm McLoughlin said. DDF, which operates all of the retail outlets at Dubai’s airports, raised its first international financing last year, a $1.75 billion, six-year syndicated loan with tranches in dollars and U.A.E. […]
Emirates is breaking out of Dubai. In what will be a curious experiment for one of the world’s fastest-growing and most respected airlines, Emirates will begin flying daily from New York’s JFK International Airport to Milan starting Oct. 1. It will be one of the very few routes in the company’s vast network that doesn’t touch its Dubai hub. The JFK-Milan route is currently served with nonstop […]
Saudi Arabia and India topped the charts for sending the most tourists to Dubai in the first half of this year as a new report by Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) revealed record-breaking figures. More than 5.5 million tourists visited Dubai from January to June this year, representing an increase of 11.1 per cent over the previous year. Director-General of DTCM Helal Saeed Almarri said: […]
(Reuters) – Qatar’s government spending rose 2.2 percent to a record 178.2 billion riyals ($48.9 billion) in its last fiscal year, slowing sharply from double-digit increases seen in the previous decade, official data showed. It was the first time that the government’s annual spending undershot its budget plan since 1990 – a sign of the difficulties which Qatar is having in pushing forward huge and complex infrastructure […]
Airports in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) experience local disruptions – such as those that stem from fog – which, annually, affect over 200 flights and 30,000 passengers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) alone. In addition, according to Oxford Economics, disruptions from the 2010 spread of Icelandic volcanic ash over European airspace had a $253 million net impact on the aviation sector in the Middle East […]
Dubai is all set to achieve 665,000 aircraft movements’ target by 2020 and expects nearly nine per cent growth in 2013 over 2012, according to a top government official. The Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA) is projecting 375,000 aircraft movement for the Dubai International Airport and Dubai World Central (DWC) in 2013, compared to 344,656 in 2012. In the first half of 2013, the aircraft movement increased […]
Dubai: Emirates, Etihad Airways and Gulf Air experienced delays on Tuesday morning after their passenger check-in and reservation system crashed. The passenger check-in and reservation system, designed by Sabre, experienced a worldwide outage at around 8am local time and lasted for two hours. Sabre software is used by more than 300 airlines around the world and some 100 airports worldwide were affected by the outage. Sabre is […]
RAK Airways has commenced its operation to Amman and Islamabad. The launch flight to Amman, Jordan, was inaugurated with rose flowers by Sheikh Salem bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Director of Civil Aviation, Ras Al Khaimah and Vice Chairman of RAK Airways as well as Murabit Al Sawaf, President and CEO of the airline. Speaking on the launch, Al Sawaf said, “Amman is our 11th destination and this […]
