Samsung Electronics, a market leader in semi conductor industry and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, recently announced its plans to meet growing market demand for air conditioners in the Kingdom. At a press conference in Riyadh, Samsung Electronics unveiled a series of split air conditioners, including Crystal, Max and Turbo units that cater to the needs and growing demands of the Saudi market. Crystal, Max and Turbo air conditioners are among the models that are produced at the new air conditioner factory that has become full operation in Thailand, February 2011. With a 227 percent capacity increase and production space expanded three times, the plant has the third highest production capacity among all manufacturing facilities of Samsung air conditioner worldwide. Samsung acquired a land plot equal to 30,400 square meters for construction of the new plant. The two-story manufacturing facility triples the production space of Samsung’s previous factory and has a 177 percent greater workforce, hence creating a factory line capacity of almost 200,000 sets per month. All the air conditioners unveiled by Samsung have introduced innovative features that will allow the consumers not only to have ‘cooling’ feature with their product, but also enjoy it. “Samsung has realized the markets’ demands for purified and advanced air conditioners, and so for that reason we are here today presenting to our consumers exactly that” said J.C Ahn, business manager of Digital Air Solution, Samsung Electronics.
DUBAI-based Emirates has increased its flights to 12 per week, with flights operating twice a day, on five days of a week. The increase of the three weekly flights, which took effect May 1, offers greater support for both inbound and outbound passengers, as well as passengers flying from Cairo beyond Dubai through the multitude of Emirates connections available to over 100 destinations globally. “The increase in flights is reflective of the level of traffic at Cairo International Airport returning to normal,” said Jean Luc Grillet, Emirates’ SVP commercial operations for Africa. “Expanding on the frequency of flights to Cairo will give our customers greater flexibility in choosing their travel times, as well as help boost further business and tourism opportunities in Egypt,” he added. Currently, Emirates’ flights to Cairo are served by a mixture of Airbus A330-200 aircraft (offering 237 seats in a three class configuration: 12 First Class Suites, 42 Business Class and 183 Economy Class seats) and Boeing 777-200. Premium on board service includes the award-winning ice in-flight entertainment system, offering more than 600 channels of on-demand entertainment, including 50 new movie releases, 25 movie classics and 25 children’s films. A large number of Arabic, Hindi and other world cinema films are also available. Entertainment choices also include video and audio on-demand, interactive games, satellite telephone, SMS and e-mail, live BBC news headlines, an air show moving map and external cameras for a bird’s eye view of the journey en route.
Saudi Arabia-based low fare airline nasair is launching its new flights to Karachi on June 18. The airline will operate daily scheduled flights from both Riyadh and Jeddah airports. The addition of Karachi to the nasair route network will bring the number of nasair’s international destinations to 19 cities. The flights will accommodate the growth in demand from Pakistani expats living and working in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, with the Haj season rapidly approaching for the year 2011 this critical route expansion will help serve the nearly 200,000 pilgrims who fly to Saudi Arabia from Pakistan every year. Nasair’s Airbus A320 aircraft will fly the routes. Simon Stewart, CEO says, “We are proud of our commitment to being the smart choice for passengers throughout the MENA region and beyond. By adding this new destination, we intend to efficiently serve the Pakistani businessmen, executives, families and workers living in Saudi Arabia. We also hope to offer Saudi business people more travel options for reaching expanding markets in Pakistan.” The carrier has introduced seven direct flights between Jeddah and Karachi each week and seven others between Riyadh and Karachi per week. Turki Abdullah Al Jawini, director of sales at the airline, said: “The nasair team is proud to represent the ‘Smart Airline’, catering to the needs of the domestic, international, business and religious tourist alike. We recognize that our passengers want to plan their trips in advance to take advantage of our ‘book early and pay less’ model.”
Oman’s national carrier Oman Air re-commenced its services between Muscat and Zanzibar from Monday (May 16). Flights will operate nonstop from Muscat to Zanzibar three times a week on Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays. Zanzibar represents the third destination in Africa and second in Tanzania. Oman Air flights will build stronger business ties between the two nations and will increase opportunities for its tourists from Europe, Indian subcontinent and other stations. Oman Air operates direct international flights from Muscat to Gulf destinations, such as Riyadh, Jeddah, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait and Al Ain.
Lufthansa German Airlines is introducing its acclaimed First Class on its services from Saudi Arabia to Munich, its gateway in southern Germany. At the same time Lufthansa will connect Jeddah to Munich for the first time. The flights will be operated via Riyadh three times weekly. The deployment of the 221-seat Airbus A340-300 practically doubles the load capacity on the route. Lufthansa’s A340-300 features a classic three-class cabin configuration with eight seats in First Class, 48 seats in Business Class and 165 seats in Economy Class. The wide-body aircraft replaces the smaller 92-seat Boeing 737-800, which served the Riyadh-Munich route since April 26, 2010. Beginning winter timetable at the end of October 2011, Lufthansa will also link Jeddah to its Munich gateway in a move to offer further passenger services from the port city. The addition of Jeddah to the Munich route comes a year after the launch of the direct services between Riyadh and Munich. Lufthansa also offers daily nonstop flights on the Jeddah-Frankfurt and on the Riyadh-Frankfurt routes. Dammam is served five times weekly. That brings the number of weekly departures to 25 from Saudi Arabia to Germany. “Saudi Arabia is an important market for Lufthansa,” said Joachim Steinbach, Lufthansa’s VP sales and services for southeast Europe, Africa, Middle East and Pakistan.
Jabal Omar Development Company has announced the signing of agreements with Hilton Worldwide, Marriott International and Hyatt International to manage and operate 18 of its 37 hotel towers. Jabal Omar, one of the largest public companies in the region, has a mega project under way in Makkah. The signing ceremony took place in London on Tuesday (May 17). Abdulrahman Abdulkader Fakeeh, chairman of the board of directors of Jabal Omar, represented the company in the signing of this agreement. Ian Carter, president, global operations and development, Hilton Worldwide; Ed Fuller, president and MD, international lodging at Marriott International; and Peter Norman, SVP, acquisitions and development at Hyatt International, represented their respective companies. Fakeeh said: “The ability to attract some of the world’s most distinguished names in the industry to Jabal Omar can be attributed to the trust our shareholders bestow on us. Our shareholders are our partners in achieving our vision — to serve pilgrims with the highest standards of hospitality. It is with their support that we can carry out important development projects that we will provide thousands of new jobs and can contribute to the development of the nation. Their constant support will help take the tourism and hospitality sector in Kingdom to new heights.” The ceremony witnessed the signing of a total of 12 hotel properties comprising 18 towers in Jabal Omar Development. According to the agreement, Hilton Worldwide will manage 6 hotels, while Hyatt and Marriott will manage 3 hotels each.
Sahara Net’s COO Kais Al-Essa was invited by Communications & Information Technology Commission (CITC) to present Sahara Net’s experience in deploying IPv6 to the recently held “2nd Workshop on IPv6,” which was organized by CITC in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The workshop was attended by many local government and private organizations seeking to know more about this technology. The workshop was divided into three main sessions, where each focused on a certain topic and was presented by leading international and local experts. Al-Essa’s paper was titled “IPv6 Local Experience.” The session also had presenters from King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Saudi Telecommunications Co. (STC) and Mobily. Al-Essa’s paper showed that Sahara Net is the 1st, and still the only, “IPv6 Ready” ISP today in Saudi Arabia. He went on to show the different steps that Sahara Net went through to achieve this distinguished status. He also shared with the audience the main issues that faced the deployment and how they were overcome. Al-Essa explained that Sahara Net is currently working with a “select” number of Enterprise Customers to enable IPv6 with them. Among the things he stressed was the need for training and awareness on the topic. Sahara Net offered several free seminars on the topic last year and this year. It also published a website last year which is dedicated to sharing knowledge on the topic. The website is open for all to use: http://ipv6.sahara.com/
Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and affiliates of ExxonMobil Chemical announced that front-end engineering design contracts were awarded and that all components are in FEED phase for the proposed new elastomers project at their Jubail Petrochemical Company joint venture petrochemical plant. FEED contracts were awarded to Jacobs Engineering Inc. and Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding for process units and to Fluor Transworld Services Inc. for associated support facilities. “This elastomers project will be the basis for the creation of a world-class rubber value chain in Saudi Arabia and a valuable extension of our offering of products and services to our customers in key markets,” said Koos van Haasteren, SABIC’s executive vice president, performance chemicals. “In addition to supporting local industry, the expansion at the joint venture in Jubail would provide additional new capacity of butyl rubber and EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer) specialty elastomers to meet the growing global demand for these products,” said Neil Chapman, SVP, polymers, ExxonMobil Chemical Company. The project is expected to establish a domestic supply of more than 400,000 tons of rubber, thermoplastic specialty polymers and carbon black to serve emerging local and international markets in Asia and the Middle East. The project also includes the establishment of a vocational training center and product application development and support center aligned with Saudi Arabia’s National Industrial Clusters Development Program to grow and diversify the manufacturing sector in Saudi Arabia.
