Middle East & North Africa

Greek charter operator Gainjet sees the Middle East as a potentially lucrative market for its services following the acquisition of a second Bombardier Challenger 604.

Embraer's newest business jet – the Legacy 500 – made its first appearance outside of Brazil when it landed at Geneva airport to participate in EBACE, Europe's major business aviation event.

Strike action by ground handling staff at Cairo International airport terminal 3, has led to severe delays for national carrier EgyptAir.

Work is finally underway to permanently fix the cracked wing ribs on the 31 Emirates A380 aircraft.

Airlines from around the globe will be increasing their weekly number of flights to Abu Dhabi International Airport during the coming summer months the airport's operator ADAC said today.

Customers with Jet Aviation in Saudi Arabia can now keep up with the news from their favourite sources following a new service launching at EBACE in Geneva today.

Saudia – the Saudi Arabian national carrier – has received its first three-cabin Boeing 777-300ER in a special ceremony at the US manufacturer's base at Everett near Seattle.

Piaggio Aero – the Italian turboprop manufacturer part owned by Abu Dhabi's Mubadala - is introducing a reduced maintenance program for its Piaggio P180 Avanti/II the company said at EBACE today.

Oman Air has committed OR2 million to staff training in 2013, having already invested more than OR3.3 million over the previous two years.

Royal Jordanian and Amadeus IT Group SA reached an agreement by which Amadeus donated around 100 pre-owned desktop and laptop computers that were uplifted by Royal Jordanian free of charge from Amadeus headquarters in Madrid to Amman.

At EBACE this morning, Bombardier revealed the Challenger 350 in partnership with fractional ownership giant NetJets.

Boeing Business Jets (BBJ) is displaying a BBJ 3 for the first time at the European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (EBACE).

African Business Aviation Association (AfBAA) Chairman Tarek Ragheb has launched AfBAA Expo a new event focused solely on the African business aviation sector and run in conjunction with the Marrakech Airshow which takes place 23 – 26 April 2014.

Nextant Aerospace, unveiled its next generation 400XT at EBACE in Geneva this morning. The company also showed off a new air ambulance configuration - the first of its Special Missions applications for the reengineered aircraft type.

German Air Ambulance Specialist and VVIP-Jet-Operator Flight-Ambulance-International (FAI) rent-a-jet AG has named Al Bateen Executive Airport as its preferred stopover airport in the Middle East region.

African Business Aviation Association (AfBAA) Chairman Tarek Ragheb has launched AfBAA Expo a new event focused solely on the African business aviation sector and run in conjunction with the Marrakech Airshow which takes place 23 – 26 April 2014.

Air Arabia has signed a US$ 350 million finance deal from a syndicate of two GCC banks to support the acquisition of 10 new Airbus A320 aircraft.

Qatar Airways' corporate jet division Qatar Executive is again taking part at Europe's leading business aviation show EBACE in Geneva this week, this time highlighting the expanded services it now offers at its Doha International Airport (DIA) maintenance service facility.

US based private aviation service provider,XJet, is to move its headquarters to Dubai and develop a new luxury FBO at Dubai World Central.

Emirates SkyCargo has won the 'Best Air Cargo Carrier Middle East' award for the 18th consecutive year at the annual Asian Freight and Supply Chain Awards (AFSCA.)

Etihad Airways has finalised the agreement to acquire three airport services companies which will accelerate and consolidate the development of in-flight catering services, ground handling and cargo operations at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

A new jet was born this morning when Swiss manufacturer Pilatus Aircraft revealed its new twin-engine jet, the PC-24, at EBACE. The new jet not only has the ability to use short runways but can also land on unpaved surfaces and will have a cargo door fitted as standard.

The new Dubai Airshow venue is on schedule for completion with just 90 days until Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP) officially hand over the keys for the show site to show organisers, F&E Aerospace.

Etihad Airways has plans to recruit more than 50 pilots from its partner airline, airberlin.

Luxury brand business jet operator VistaJet was in record-breaking mode at EBACE this morning as it enrolled 50 Bombardier aircraft into the JSSI Platinum engine and APU hourly cost maintenance programmes.