Middle East & North Africa

Airbus delivered 566 commercial aircraft to 87 customers in 2020, in line with the production adaptation plan set out in April 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After Egypt’s decision to reopen its airspace to Qatar, EgyptAir will commence a daily flight between Cairo and Doha from January 18.

IATA’s Alexander de Juniac has delivered his first briefing of 2021 regarding Covid-19 saying safety is aviation’s number one priority and ‘our’ greatest success. However, governments are not interested in managing a balanced approach to the risks of COVID-19.

Gulf Air will to move its entire operations for inbound and outbound flights to the new Bahrain International Airport terminal on January 28.

Inmarsat has been crowned the ‘World’s Leading Inflight Internet Service Provider’ for the fourth year in a row at the World Travel Awards 2020.

Emirates Group Security has extended its partnership with MedAire to build an innovative, cutting-edge solution that will improve its thorough analysis and threat-prevention systems in the aviation industry.

Etihad Cargo has achieved 87 per cent on-time-performance (OTP) during 2020 – ahead of its 85 per cent target and despite a significant increase in flight utilisation.

Qatar Airways today resumed flights to Riyadh in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with a daily service.

Gulf Air has announced the extension of its ‘No Fees, Unlimited Changes’ campaign allowing passengers to change bookings, exchange and refund tickets until 31 March 2021.

Emirates has announced it will resume non-stop services to Seattle (from 1st February), Dallas and San Francisco (from 2nd March).

India’s full-service private carrier Vistara has announced daily non-stop flights between Sharjah and Delhi starting January 20.

EgyptAir Training Academy has passed the inspection of SGS company that awards ISO certificates.

Emirates SkyCargo said 2020 was a year unlike any other for the aviation and the air cargo industry with the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC), the organiser of the International Defence Exhibition (IDEX 2021) and the Naval Defence Exhibition (NAVDEX 2021), has received approval from the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre for all badge holders to be exempted from the 10-day quarantine procedure on their arrival into Abu Dhabi.

Dave Calderwood takes a look at what will be focusing the attention of the business aviation community in 2021.

IATA has said that the recovery in passenger demand which had been slowing since the Northern hemisphere’s summer travel season, came to a halt in November 2020.

IATA said it has welcomed the signing of the ‘solidarity and stability’ agreement that will see Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Egypt open their air, land and sea borders with Qatar.

Saudia has become the world’s first airline to introduce a comprehensive flight guide in braille for visually-impaired and blind passengers.

Qatar Airways began rerouting some of its flights through Saudi airspace from last night (Thursday) after the lifting of a blockade imposed more than three years ago.

UAE Team Emirates have arrived in Dubai, making their first stop at Emirates Group Headquarters.

Olfa Hamdi has been appointed chairman and CEO of Tunisair.

As 2020 was a bumper year for fighter aircraft across the MENA region, Jon Lake looks at this, and various other, defence matters.

Emirates SkyCargo has become the first airline cargo carrier in the world to have transported more than 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines on its flights.

IATA has called on governments in the Middle East to develop re-start plans to safely re-link their citizens, businesses and economies to global markets when the COVID-19 epidemiological situation permits.

In the run up to World Health Day (7th April), Emirates SkyCargo has become the first airline cargo carrier in the world to have transported more than 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines on its flights.