Category: Middle East

Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has announced that a travel corridor arrangement has been set up with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to facilitate essential business trips, which included official and diplomatic visits. The minister said Indonesia proposed the agreement after consulting with related government bodies, as well as their counterparts in the UAE, Jakarta Post reports. “Indonesia and the UAE signed an agreement on an essential business travel corridor. The agreement is effective immediately,” Retno said. The travel corridor agreement, she added, was strictly for essential business travel such as businesspeople and diplomats, but not for tourists. The agreement ... Read more

Travellers arriving at airports in the UAE could be among the first passengers in the world to undergo Covid-19 detection by police dogs. K9 sniffer dogs have been stationed at airports across the country to help detect traces of the coronavirus from passenger samples, according to a report by The National. Specially trained dogs at Dubai International Airport are working to track possible infections using swabs gathered from arriving passengers. “An area was dedicated to detect Covid-19 using K9 police dogs at Dubai International Airport,” said Major Salah Al Mazrooei from Dubai Police. “Samples are taken in collaboration with partners ... Read more

Kuwait’s international airport will resume commercial flights to 20 countries from August 1. The resumption will be carried out in a three-stage re-opening, five months after it suspended operations due to the coronavirus pandemic. Flights will initially cover eight countries in the Middle East, including the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Lebanon; six in Europe, including the UK, Germany and Switzerland; five in Asia, including Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India and the Philippines; and to Ethiopia as the lone African destination, Kuwait’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement. The government’s three-stage re-opening took into account the importance of ... Read more

Flight bookings from India to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah will resume from today, Air India has announced. The airline has opened bookings for India-UAE flights on the departure leg of the repatriation flights under the Vande Bharat Mission. The bookings will be open till August 15. Bookings are however open for residence visa holders with ICA or GDRFA approval and a valid Covid-19 PCR test report in the printed form, from a government-approved laboratory. The airline has notified passengers not to travel with expired ICA or GDRFA approvals. Only resident permit passengers with stamped passport copy can book tickets ... Read more

Dubai-based carrier Emirates is gearing up for a busy travel period this weekend, for the Eid holiday. Customers are reminded to check the latest travel requirements, and to arrive at the airport at least three hours before their flight departure to avoid any delays. Peak travel is expected to start this evening, with Thursday, July 30, marking the busiest time for departures in Terminal 3. Passengers are encouraged to build in extra time to avoid any delays with expected traffic congestion. Passengers physically checking in at the airport are requested to check in no later than 3 hours prior to departure, ... Read more

Dubai-based carrier Emirates has rolled out a new online gateway to serve its travel trade partners around the world. Tailored for each market, and personalised for each partner to cater to their unique business environment and needs, the Emirates Partners Portal is designed as a one-stop shop for travel industry partners to quickly and securely access the full range of information on Emirates’ latest products, services and policies, and obtain technical support. The portal also offers a range of functions including self-service tools and support, and in-built automation of business processes, all aimed at delivering efficiency for travel partners, as ... Read more

Effective 1 August, all travellers flying Etihad Airways from around the world to Abu Dhabi, and those transferring via Abu Dhabi onto other flights, will be required to show a negative COVID-19 PCR test result. The tests have to be carried out from a list of approved testing facilities listed on www.etihad.com/destinationguide, alongside their ICA approval if Abu Dhabi is their end destination. The PCR test must be carried out within 96 hours prior to arrival in Abu Dhabi and a negative COVID-19 PCR test result certificate from one of the approved clinics listed must be shown for approval to board. ... Read more

Dubai-based airline Emirates has said that on-arrival polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests will be mandatory only for passengers from specific countries, starting August 1. The airline has issued a list of 29 such countries, Gulf News reports. These countries include India, Brazil, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and select US airports among others. The US airports included in the list are Dallas Fort Worth (DFW), Houston (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and Orlando (MCO), says the Gulf News report. All passengers arriving from these points of ... Read more

The UAE has introduced mandatory testing for all airline passengers travelling to the country. Travellers must undergo tests in their country of origin and present a negative test report at check-in desks before flying to the Emirates. The new system will be in place from August 1, says a report by The National. The National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (NCEMA) said the rules applied to “all Emiratis, residents, and tourists, arriving via the country’s airports, irrespective of the countries they are coming from”, according to state news agency Wam. The rules also apply to all transit passengers passing ... Read more

Qatar Airways will operate three weekly flights to Cebu in Philippines, starting July 24. The airline will also resume its China flights, with a weekly Guangzhou service. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker said: “We are delighted to be launching a new direct service to Cebu, offering our passengers another gateway into the Philippines. Being the airline that has never stopped flying since COVID-19 hit, it has been Qatar Airways’ mission to take people home safely during the pandemic, and we have helped more than two million people get home to their loved ones since February,” he said. ... Read more

Qatar Airways has launched an international arbitration seeking at least $5bn from four Arab countries as compensation for blocking the airline from their airspace for the past three years. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt had imposed a ban on the airline since June 2017 when they cut all ties with Qatar and brought upon an air, land and sea blockade on it, over accusations of supporting “terrorism”. Doha denied the charges alleging that the quartet aims to infringe on its sovereignty. The airline said it has made substantial investments in these four countries in order to ... Read more

Eli Rozenberg, the 30-year-old scion of a New York family in the nursing home business, made his offer on Monday for control of El Al Airlines, Israel’s flag carrier. He said that he and his family were prepared to pay $75 million for an allocation of shares that would give him a 44.99% stake. According to a report by Haaretz, the stake is the maximum he can offer to achieve control of Israel’s flag carrier without having to make a general offer for all the shares, under Israeli regulations. The offer, which was presented to the Israel Companies Authority and the ... Read more

Emirates will resume passenger services to Stockholm with weekly flights from August 1, expanding its network in Europe to 22 cities, and connecting customers from Europe to the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa. The restart of Stockholm flights means that all Emirates gateways in Scandinavia would have resumed services by August, with flights to Oslo resuming from August 4 and services to Copenhagen being in operation since June. This will take the airline’s passenger network to 63 destinations in August, offering customers around the world more convenient connections to Dubai, and via Dubai. Flights between Stockholm and Dubai will ... Read more

Etihad Airways will resume passenger flights from Abu Dhabi to Shanghai from July 27. “The service will operate with an initial weekly flight using a Boeing 777-300ER, featuring business and economy cabins,” the airline announced in a statement on Monday. Robin Kamark, Etihad Aviation Group Chief Commercial Officer, said, “We are delighted to announce the resumption of scheduled services to China, as we gradually return to more destinations on our global network, supporting the recovery of economic and social activities worldwide. Our priority now is to build the network back up on markets that have opened up and to provide ... Read more

Omran, the investment arm of Oman’s tourism ministry, will end a partnership with Port Investment Ltd (PIL) that entailed redevelopment of the Sultan Qaboos port. Omran will buy the 70% stake it doesn’t already own in Muttrah Tourism Development Co., established to redevelop Sultan Qaboos port for $1 billion, Bloomberg has reported.  It will make the acquisition at “a value as documented in the shareholders agreement,” Omran said in a statement. PIL is owned by Damac International, which is a joint venture between Damac PJSC and DICO Group. Mina Al Sultan Qaboos Waterfront was designed to include homes, offices, hotels ... Read more