Air Arabia Abu Dhabi has announced the introduction of a new service to Tashkent, capital city of Uzbekistan with direct flights from Abu Dhabi starting on June 24th, 2021. The new service represents the tenth route for Air Arabia Abu Dhabi since the launch of the carrier’s service from Abu Dhabi International Airport on July 14, 2020. Customers can now book their direct flights between Abu Dhabi and Tashkent by visiting Air Arabia’s website, by calling the call centre or through travel agencies.

Ras Al Khaimah International Airport (RAK Airport) has commenced commercial passenger operations with ‘flyEgypt’, the North African low-cost carrier. The new schedule, which enhances Ras Al Khaimah’s connections with MENA’s most populous country, marks an acceleration in the airport’s current expansion strategy that is seeing it as the fastest-growing aviation hub in the UAE.  Commencing May 6th with the touch-down of ‘flyEgypt’s’ flight FEG501 from Cairo International Airport to RAK Airport, the thrice-weekly service offers passengers a new value fare schedule for a direct connection to the Egyptian capital. With ‘flyEgypt’ also starting twice-weekly direct flights from Suhag in Egypt to Ras Al Khaimah, the partnership further opens up the emirate to Egypt’s 100 million people. “Egypt is a strong brotherly nation for the UAE, and this is reflected in the growing, economic and cultural ties between us. Increasing connectivity between Ras Al Khaimah and Egypt at this critical time will facilitate these and other mutual activities. From a localised viewpoint, this service will support Ras Al Khaimah’s diversification strategy and further enhance RAK Airport’s strategic position as a logistics and transport hub for the region,” said H.E Eng. Sheikh Salem bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Chairman of the Department of Civil Aviation and Ras Al Khaimah International Airport, and Board member of General Civil Aviation Authority and Ras Al Khaimah Executive Council. “The tourism sectors in both countries will benefit significantly from the new “flyEgypt” service. It provides a direct connection for Ras Al Khaimah residents to take in the wonders of the pyramids and ancient Egypt, while travellers coming the other way can experience the many delights of Ras Al Khaimah and its unique outdoor environment that is establishing …

Air Arabia has announced the resumption of direct flights between Sharjah and Moscow starting May 1, 2021. Customers can now book their direct flights between Sharjah and Moscow by visiting Air Arabia’s website, by calling the call centre or through travel agencies. Ensuring the highest standards of safety at every step of the journey by following all health and safety protocols, Air Arabia has also added to the convenience and confidence of passengers by introducing free COVID-19 insurance coverage. The insurance is automatically included as part of the booking and no additional documents are required from passengers.

Emirates has suspended passengers’ flights from India effective 24 April 2021 until 31 May 2021. Furthermore, passengers who have transited through India in the last 14 days will not be accepted to travel from any other point to the UAE.  UAE Nationals, holders of UAE Golden Visas and members of diplomatic missions who comply with the revised published COVID‑19 protocols will be exempt for travel. The options for cancelled bookings are: Keep your ticket for future flight and rebook your flight to another date. Any further details can be obtained if you log in to their website and check “Keep your ticket for future flights”. You can get all the information on “Keep your ticket” option. In terms of rebooking do contact your travel agent or booking office.

Cebu Pacific has launched a new product that enables travellers to purchase unlimited one-way tickets within the Philippines for a low price of only AED 7 (Php 99) this May 5. The CEB Super Pass allows travellers to purchase all of the vouchers they want for a low one-way base fare, and fly whenever they wish across CEB’s widest domestic network.  The vouchers will only be available for purchase for a limited time, from today, May 5, until May 12, 2021. Travel dates for Cebu Pacific’s Super Pass will be any date from May 12, 2021 to May 31, 2022! This innovative, first-of-its-kind product provides flexibility of travel dates, affordability, and convenience for all passengers as the carrier continues to celebrate its 25th anniversary. This Super Pass, exclusively available for Philippine destinations, helps families and friends from all over the country to reconnect and discover world-class beaches and historical sites. “On our 25th anniversary, the CEB Super Pass is a timely option for guests who would want to travel whenever they want, wherever they want in the country, at a guaranteed low fare. With the widest network in the Philippines, we offer this one-of-a-kind product that enables us to fulfill our commitment of providing fast connectivity and value-for-money deals for everyone,” said Candice Iyog, Cebu Pacific Vice President for Marketing and Customer Experience.

ATM 2021’s strategic partners include Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) as Destination Partner, Emaar Hospitality Group as Official Hotel Partner, Emirates as Official Airline Partner and The Vision as Official Destination Management Partner. Commenting on the ATM 2021 hybrid event, the show’s strategic partners said: Issam Kazim, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) commented: “As Dubai plays host to the Arabian Travel Market during this challenging period, it is testament to the city’s tireless efforts in leading the restart of global tourism, inspired and guided by our visionary leadership with the goal of positioning Dubai as one of the world’s safest destinations. It is noteworthy that through a proven framework for welcoming back visitors safely and ensuring they enjoy a well-rounded destination experience, as well as our ability to transform challenges into opportunities, Dubai has demonstrated a successful model for recovery of the international travel and tourism sector. With industry professionals from around the world set to converge in the city this month, we look forward to sharing Dubai’s positive outlook during ATM 2021, while emphasising how crucial it is to always keep the health and safety of travellers at the top of the agenda to ensure tourism growth.” Adnan Kazim, Chief Commercial Officer, Emirates Airline, said: “An event like ATM is vital in supporting our industry to find its bearings, share new developments, work together to help rebuild trust in travel, and simply do business. This important event will play a vital role in showcasing our home and hub, Dubai, as it continues to safely host mega-events. Dubai has also become a model for other governments and cities …

Qatar Airways Privilege Club is excited to announce more new options for its members to earn and spend Qmiles. Privilege Club members can now stay or drive away with Qmiles, with the launch of Hotel & Car Rewards. Privilege Club members will be able to use their Qmiles to book a stay at one of more than 350,000 hotels or rent a car at over 20,000 locations worldwide. Members also earn Qmiles on every cash travel booking they make. Hotel & Car Rewards enables Privilege Club members to book 5-star hotels such as Sharq Village & Spa in Doha, InterContinental London Park in London or Le Royal Monceau in Paris, using all or part Qmiles as well as booking car rentals across the globe with brands such as Avis, Budget and Sixt. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Akbar Al Baker said: “At Qatar Airways, we are continually striving to enhance Privilege Club and offer our members more value and opportunities to earn and spend Qmiles. We also want to make the experience of earning and spending Qmiles as seamless as when our loyalty members travel with us across the globe. Hotel & Car Rewards provides our members’ convenient ways to spend for hotel stays and car rentals using Qmiles or to use a combination of Qmiles with Cash. Hotel & Car Rewards is another example of Privilege Club’s commitment to redefining and enhancing the experience for our loyalty members.” Rob MacLean, CEO of Points, a leading loyalty technology company who is helping to power Hotel & Car Rewards for Qatar Airways, also welcomed the news, “We are pleased to be expanding our partnership with Qatar Airways Privilege Club …

Hotelbeds’ Executive Chairman, Joan Vilà, after dedicating more than 30 years of his career to driving significant innovation, transformation, and growth, is announcing his decision to move to a non-executive role on the Board of Hotelbeds with immediate effect. Joan had originally planned to step back from the day-to-day running of the company in 2020, but the impact of COVID-19 required him to delay the move to focus on successfully navigating the company through the global crisis. Now, with a strengthened balance sheet and with the company in a good position to capitalise on the recovery once travel demand returns, Joan believes that this is the right time for him to follow his original plan to move to a non-executive role on Hotelbeds’ board. Nicolas Huss, the former CEO of Ingenico and Visa Europe, is an experienced board-level executive and CEO with a very strong reputation in the payments, financial services, and travel industries, where he has led significant growth, transformation and innovation. He brings to Hotelbeds extensive experience in leading technology and digital companies as well as a proven track record for driving organic growth. A French national, Nicolas has a truly international background and has lived and worked in many countries, including Spain where he was previously based for seven years.   Nicolas Huss said: “I’m really looking forward to taking the reins at Hotelbeds, the market leader in its segment. Joan Vilà’s strategic vision and relentless drive to innovate and internationalise has created a wonderful company and a fantastic workforce with a truly dynamic culture. Together with Carlos Muñoz and Andrés García-Tenorio, and the rest of the highly experienced Executive Leadership Team, we are well positioned to …

Emirates Airline has been taking all necessary protocols to ensure the safety of both passengers and crew over the past year. Today covering a network of 120 destinations Emirates will be looking at increasing the capacity further in the coming months. Adnan Kazim, Chief Commercial Officer, Emirates Airline shared, “For us, the core focus was to put together the right measures before we reintroduced our flights, between March 2020 and May 2020 when we reintroduced the flights we ensured that the right measures were put in place and all requirements of the wellbeing of our staff and passengers were done, by wearing the mask mandatory and PCR test before and even in Dubai on arrival to ensure that the community is also safe when entering Dubai. With the vaccine roll out in the world we expect that things will be much better starting  from summer July and August and gradually enter to the winter with more opening of borders and more people will be able to travel without restrictions.” Speaking on summer, “for us part of again is to recover some of the points that we don’t have like Bali for example its’ one of the destinations and today Indonesia has signed an air bubble agreement with UAE  so when Bali will commence in say July or August we are quite keen to reintroduce Bali back and we are also looking at reintroducing the capacity to China more capacity into Asia like subcontinent area like Sri Lanka, like India we want to ramp up. We as a company are dynamic and agile to respond to these requirements as we see more countries opening gateways more countries opening by easing protocols …

At a recent interview with Mark Kirby, Head of Hospitality – Emaar Hospitality Group mentioned that the group will be extending its brand not only in the UAE but also other parts of the Middle East region. He reiterated that the first quarter in 2021 was a good start to the year especially in the luxury market and that they will be opening new properties in Bahrain and Turkey later in the year. Mark Kirby, Head of Hospitality – Emaar Hospitality Group shared, “we saw a very solid first quarter our occupancies were in line with the luxury market. Our average rates are very solid as well and we have seen a lot of suite business about 40% of our rooms’ revenue came from suite business and the luxury market is very much here within the city. We’ve seen April exceptional numbers and also May, we actually opened the month closing the budget within the first three days and that indicates very successful and strong demand for our hotels. As we move into the summer we are working very closely with DTCM on the summer staycation offers and really welcome people to Dubai for some and that is extremely important to them. AS we move out of the summer in to the second half of the year we will be gearing up and getting ready for Expo where Emaar hospitality is the partner. We’ve got a number of openings this year, since the pandemic started opened up 3 beach properties one Address beach, Rove Le mer and the third in the emirate of Umm al Quwain the Vida Umm Al Quwain so that is already a big achievement, as I …