HILTON
Hilton Hotels & Resorts has opened its first resort in Egypt’s Marsa Alam region. Hilton Marsa Alam Nubian Resort, a 370-room resort overlooking the Red Sea, is the 17th Hilton Hotels & Resorts property in Egypt. The resort is part of an integrated mixed-use development, which includes an entertainment village, a congress center and a residential town. It is specifically designed to reflect the ancient history and heritage of the Nubian culture, which dominated this area of Egypt for centuries. Dave Horton, global head, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, said: “As the largest international hotel brand in Egypt, we take great pride in opening our latest Hilton Resort in this region. Marsa Alam is a fantastic location for travelers seeking rich local culture and authentic experiences. The area is an ideal gateway for tourists seeking the ever popular Nile cruise, ancient sites and temples.” Hamada Aboul Enein, chairman of Concord Co. for Tourist Development, the owners of the hotel, said: “We’re proud of our region and extremely pleased that Hilton, Egypt’s most recognized hospitality brand, will now play a part in helping to promote Marsa Alam to a worldwide audience.” The property is part of the Hilton Resorts portfolio, a distinguished group of more than 70 properties located throughout 26 countries. Rudi Jagersbacher, MEA area president, Hilton Worldwide said: “This is the second hotel we have opened in Egypt this year and we look forward to welcoming tourists from all over the world.”
AIR ARABIA
Less than eight years after its first flight, Air Arabia has welcomed onboard its 20 millionth passenger, demonstrating the enormous appeal of the first and largest low-cost carrier (LCC) in the MENA region. Air Arabia’s first flight took off from Sharjah to Bahrain on Oct. 28, 2003, marking the introduction of the LCC concept to the Middle East. At the time, the carrier served five regional destinations. By the end of its first 12 months of operations, the pioneering airline carried 500,000 passengers to 16 different destinations. Twenty million passengers later, the airline has expanded its reach to serve 66 destinations from three hubs in the UAE, Morocco and Egypt, winning countless accolades along the way. The airline served nearly 4.5 million passengers last year alone, and currently operates a global fleet of 27 new Airbus A320 aircraft. Averaging 2.5 million passengers annually, 20 million passengers would fill 123,000 Air Arabia aircraft. Lined up nose to tail, those aircraft would stretch nearly 5,000 km. “Eight years ago when our first flight took off from Sharjah International Airport — at a time when the low-cost model was just introduced to the region — few of us could have imagined the day when we would cross the 20-million passenger mark,” said Adel Ali, group CEO, Air Arabia. “The tremendous growth of Air Arabia since then is testament to our single-minded focus on providing a growing range of destinations, great service and value-for-money fares.”
BRITISH AIRWAYS
British Airways (BA) is offering discounted fares and packages to Middle East travelers who are considering spending the Holy Month of Ramadan outside of the UAE this year. For flights from the UAE to any of its wide-ranging network of destinations such as Europe, the US and Canada, BA’s fares can be booked online. Bookings can be made to London Heathrow and beyond before Aug. 31 for travel from now until Dec. 31. Passengers can book return flights in Club World (business class) from SR10,702, World Traveler Plus (premium economy) from SR4,787 and World Traveler (economy class) from SR2,666. Paolo De Renzis, BA’s regional commercial manager, said: “With Ramadan coinciding with the extreme temperatures of the summer months in the Middle East, British Airways’ great value travel packages offer people the option of spending the holy month in cooler climates. Together with our promise of providing nothing less than world-class quality products and services — all at great value for money — customers who book online can also take advantage of some great offers on hotel and car rental.” For travelers arriving, departing or transferring through Terminal 5, the airlines’ dedicated terminal at London Heathrow, will have the best choice of connections to more than 75 destinations in Europe and North America. A full timetable of British Airways’ GCC-London services is available online.
FLYDUBAI
Flydubai has doubled the size of its fleet in just one year following the arrival of its 18th aircraft earlier this week. Marking yet another milestone for Dubai’s first low-cost carrier, the new Boeing 737-800 NG represents an investment of $80 million and is the latest delivery of the order of 50 placed by flydubai at the 2008 Farnborough Airshow. Flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith said: “We are the world’s fastest growing start-up airline and a significant contributor to our success has been our young, efficient and expanding fleet. The range and capabilities of our 18 Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft allows us to provide our customers with high-quality, low-cost links to destinations in the GCC, MENA, Indian sub-continent, Asia and the fringes of Europe. The new aircraft has gone straight into service just in time to support the new CIS routes launching in September, as well as the upcoming busy Eid holiday.” The 11th in the flydubai fleet to feature Boeing’s new “Sky Interior and the revolutionary Fiber-To-The-Screen” in-flight entertainment system by Lumexis, the new aircraft will also incorporate Goodrich Corporation DURACARB carbon brakes and ‘Zonal Drying System’, increasing fuel-efficiency and savings in emissions and costs. Flydubai started operations in June 2009 with daily flights to Beirut. The airline targets destinations within a 4.5 hours flight-radius of Dubai, and currently has operations to 38 cities, with five additional routes in Russia and Ukraine to commence in September.
EMIRATES SKYCARGO
Emirates SkyCargo, the freight division of Emirates airline, is set to add a third weekly freight flight to meet the growing demands of the thriving UAE-Brazil trade route. The oil industry is just one of many areas that are bustling in Brazil and recently Emirates SkyCargo delivered two large helicopters for energy giant Petrobras. The helicopters — to be used by Rio de Janeiro oil rigs — were transported from Dubai International Airport to Viracopos Airport in Campinas, a route that the carrier will serve three times a week from Sept. 16. “Transporting helicopters requires the highest degree of care and special handling, from when we take delivery of them, to loading, right through to their arrival in Sao Paulo,” said Dener Souza, cargo manager of SkyCargo in South America. “This is a great example of the expertise we can offer customers who want to quickly transport valuable outsized items, while the addition of another flight is a tremendous boost to the service we can provide. The logistics and careful monitoring of the cargo from door to door is the Emirates SkyCargo differential,” said Alexander Gulla, president of AGS Group, the international logistics company responsible for transporting the helicopters. Emirates SkyCargo has been serving Campinas since October 2010. In addition, Emirates has been operating a passenger service to Sao Paulo Guarulhos International Airport, since 2007 with a Boeing 777-300ER, which can transport up to 160 tons of good a week in both directions in the belly hold.
ALINMA BANK
Alinma Bank has launched a first-of-its-kind campaign in the Saudi market for financing services, through which bank partners (clients) are given free promotional gifts with the first personal financing (real estate, car or share financing) deal they complete with the bank. This special offer has been launched in recognition of the bank’s partners and the trust they have in the bank. The offer will extend through Sept. 29. Fahad Al-Semari, Alinma’s GM for retail banking, said the bank would offer a wide range of valuable gifts including BMW cars, electrical appliances (televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, etc.) as well as the Mobily Limited service, all depending on the type of financing deal. He added that the offer is not part of a raffle or other give-away gimmick. Rather, he said, it would be extended to all partners who sign financing deals with terms of two years or more. Al-Semari added that the bank would provide the Mobily Connect service along with one free month of 5 GB traffic capacity to partners who transfer their salary deposits to Alinma Bank. Additionally, all bank partners will enjoy a discount of 10 percent on all LG products purchased from the Mohammed Yousuf Naghi company using an Alinma Bank debit card. He noted that the bank strives to provide Shariah-compliant financing solutions to suit the needs of all segments of society and that the promotional gift campaign showed the bank’s appreciation for its partners.
BASKIN ROBBINS
Baskin Robbins, an international ice cream specialty stores, has announced its plans to enter the Asir region in southwestern part of Saudi Arabia in which it plans to open four new stores this summer. The ice cream brand, which has carved a niche with customers in the Kingdom for over 30 years, also unveiled plans to open 20 standalone Baskin Robbins store across Asir over the next four years including 10 in Khamis Mushayt and seven in Abha. The stores will be operated by Galadari Ice Cream Company (GICC), the exclusive licensee for Baskin Robbins for the entire region since 1978, through Jumeirah Trading Co. Ltd. (JTCL), its licensee in the Kingdom. All the stores will be offering the entire gamut of ice cream experience that has come to be associated with Baskin Robbins, including its innovative flavors, milk shakes, ice cream cakes, ice cream scoops and cones. The new stores will add on the extensive Baskin Robbins expansion plans across the Kingdom. Ali bin Hussein Qamash, vice chairman of the Abha Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said such a significant step represents the promising investment atmosphere in Asir region. “At Baskin Robbins, we have always made it a point to sell fun as an experience more than an ice cream and constantly in a process of innovating our product range to satisfy our discerning consumers in which we became their favorite destination in the region,” said Saleh Yadkar, GM, Jumeirah Trading Co. Ltd.
SIA
Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Tourism Queensland have signed an agreement to jointly promote tourism to Queensland through the airline’s services to Brisbane. Under the four-year agreement, which took effect from July 1, SIA and Tourism Queensland will jointly fund a range of campaigns and promotional activities aimed at driving tourism to the Australian state. Tan Chik Quee, SIA’s SVP marketing, said the partnership with Tourism Queensland reflected the Airline’s long-term commitment to the Australian market. “Our association with Queensland has had a long history and our belief in the tourism proposition for Queensland has remained unshaken through thick and thin. With the extension of this partnership with Tourism Queensland, we hope to continue to attract visitors from all over our extensive network to discover the wonderful variety of experiences that Queensland offers,” he said. Queensland’s Minister for Tourism, Manufacturing and Small Business, Jan Jarratt said SIA was an important aviation partner with access to many key international markets and its network would help Queensland achieve its goal of attracting more travelers. She added: “The agreement is a show of support from a wonderful Queensland aviation partner. It reaffirms the importance of strong aviation partnerships, which are crucial to the strength of Queensland’s tourism industry.” Key markets covered under the agreement include China, Germany, Indonesia, India, Japan, Scandinavia and Singapore.
ALESAYI/PANASONIC
Alesayi Electronics-Panasonic have assured customers that they will spare no effort in restoring their normal business activities following the fire that burned down the company’s main building and service center in Jeddah. In this regard, Alesayi recently announced that it has taken a temporary administrative headquarters and opened a new highly efficient service center to replace the one that went up in flames. Alesayi Electronics Executive MD Khalid Al-Ghazi said: “Although the incident was tragic, with Allah’s help and with the combined efforts and dedication of all the company’s employees we are on track to overcome this crisis. Fortunately, our sales operations have not been affected, which confirms the trust enjoyed by our products and services in the Kingdom.” Hidfomi Kawakita, Saudi-based GM for Panasonic Marketing Middle East, said: “We are viewing the incident as an illness that hit the body and currently is quickly recovering to come back stronger than ever. We thank all the employees at Alesayi Electronics for their amazing work in overcoming this crisis and also all of our loyal dealers and customers for their tremendous faith in us,” Kawakita added. The fire that destroyed Alesayi Plaza, Alesayi Electronics head office and the service center in Jeddah occurred on July 9. Panasonic Corporation, is a world leader in the development and manufacture of electronic products for a wide range of consumer, business, and industrial needs, is based in Osaka, Japan.
