Middle East & North Africa

A historic deal that could stimulate some of that growth came this week as Etihad and Israel’s El Al signed an MOU to explore greater cooperation, code sharing, joint engineering and cargo services and even bringing the two airlines loyalty programmes closer together.

Gulf Air has appointed Shams Al Doseri as country manager for its Muscat station after relocating from Ethiopia back into the Middle East.

Turkish Cargo has started to carry COVID-19 vaccines via its special cargo service.

Air Arabia Abu Dhabi has inaugurated its flight between Abu Dhabi and Muscat.

Qatar Airways, Official Partner and the Official Airline of FIFA, today unveiled a specially-branded Boeing 777 aircraft painted in FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 livery, to mark two years to go until the tournament kicks off on 21 November 2022.

India’s privately-owned full-service carrier Vistara has started operating non-stop flights between Delhi and Doha, as part of an effort to strengthen its presence in the Middle-East.

In 2015, Catch of Norway Seafood, a family business based out of Bengaluru and Oslo, saw the potential for bringing fresh seafood from the cold waters of Norway to fine-dining restaurants and homes of customers in India with Emirates Skycargo helping that happen.

SITA and Orange Business Services have implemented a multi-tenant edge SD-WAN platform at more than 60 airports globally through SITA’s shared connectivity platform AirportHub.

The government of Saudi Arabia has provided state-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) with at least $7 billion in direct payments and other financial support in 2019 and 2020.

Emirates has re-launched its Dubai Connect offer which gives customers transiting through its hub a complimentary hotel stay in Dubai.

Gulf Air has started its countdown to be the title sponsor of F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix which will take place between 27-29 November.

CFM International will provide time and material support for Air Arabia’s fleet of six LEAP-1A-powered A321neo aircraft.

Saudi Arabian Airlines’ (Saudia) new director general Ibrahim Al-Omar, has been appointed to the governing board of directors of IATA, the international airline association at today's AGM.

Etihad Airways has partnered with information technology company SITA, to trial the use of facial biometrics in order to check in cabin crew at the airline's Crew Briefing Centre at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

The Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, Etihad Cargo, Abu Dhabi Ports Group, Rafed and SkyCell have collaborated to handle more than six billion vaccine doses to be distributed across the world.

Qatar Airways Cargo has appointed Wexco, a part of ECS Group, as its general sales agent (GSA) in Australia. Jay Menon reports.

Emirates has completed an intensive programme to clear its backlog of refund requests which was caused by pandemic-related travel disruption.

Swissport International has added Al-Qassim to its growing network in the Middle East. Last week, a first flight of Pakistan International Airlines has been handled successfully at Prince Naïf Bin Abdulaziz International Airport (ELQ) in Central Saudi Arabia.

Dnata has launched a dedicated inflight retail centre of excellence.

Etihad Airways will commence another service from China, with flights from Beijing to Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, from 7 December.

Emirates has been named as the World's Leading Airline in three major categories at the World Travel Awards 2020: World's Leading Economy Class, Airline Rewards Programme and Airline Lounge - Business Class.

SpiceJet, one of India’s low-cost carriers, has launched its maiden non-stop flight connecting New Delhi with Ras Al Khaimah.

The first scheduled commercial flight operated by Flydubai from Dubai International (DXB) landed at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV) on Thursday 26 November at 11:35 to a water salute.

Emirates is re-opening its lounges around the world beginning with the Emirates lounge in Cairo International Airport.

DUBZ, dnata's baggage technology and logistics company, has partnered with Emirates and now offers its popular home check-in services to the leading international airline's passengers, too.