Dubai Lifestyle News
Dubai International Airport continues to grow
Dubai International Airport continues to expand at an astonishing rate, with new figures showing that 5,418,946 passengers travelled into the facility in April alone.This was an increase of 18.7 per cent when compared with the corresponding month in 2012 and it is the ninth consecutive month that the aviation hub has posted double-digit growth. It is also the fifth successive month that more than five million people have used the airport.Taking April's impressive figures into account, the airport has now accommodated 21,905,363 visitors in 2013 to date, which is up by 16.3 per cent on the first four months of last year.Dubai has proven particularly popular among holidaymakers and businesspeople from India, the UK and Saudi Arabia in recent years and it was no surprise to see these three destinations accounting for the bulk of foreign visitors once again last month.Indeed, 672,557 people travelled to the city from India, while 419,053 UK residents also spent some time in this part of the Middle East. Some 405,695 Saudi Arabians made the short trip to Dubai during April too.Chief executive officer at Dubai Airports Paul Griffiths said the airport continues to expand to cater for the enormous demand for flights into and out of the UAE.”It is very clear that our growth rate has picked up and that should continue at a similar pace into the next quarter and beyond. Given the central role aviation plays in a country's gross domestic product, this also bodes well for the increasingly robust local economy,” he remarked.Dubai Airports rounded off a very successful week by landing two prizes at the Fifth Annual Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) HR Excellence Awards.The company scooped the Best Employee Engagement award and the firm's vice president of learning and development Samya Ketait received the HR Professional of the Year accolade.This prize-giving is aimed at rewarding organisations that have made an outstanding contribution towards developing HR across the GCC region. Continue reading
The Apprentice hopefuls head to Dubai
Fans of the popular BBC One reality TV show The Apprentice will be able to see the UAE in all its glory on tonight's (May 28th) episode.The 12 remaining candidates travelled to Dubai to take part in a special task that required them to purchase eight items for a new hotel that is currently being built in the Middle Eastern country.They had to buy the goods – which included a UAE flag in a specific size and a sago palm tree – for as little money as possible.Lord Alan Sugar wanted to see if the contestants had what it takes to conduct business in a different part of the world, but unfortunately some of the entrepreneurs came unstuck when they got their dimensions all wrong when buying the flag.Nick Hewer – Lord Sugar's right-hand man who oversees the candidates as they set about each task – explained what had happened.”Here in the land of the sand dune, the camel, and the Burj Al Arab, size really matters,” he remarked.”They came to buy a flag of a certain size, they got the size wrong, they got one the size of a napkin. Why? Because they weren't paying attention.”The overall winner of the show will have a unique opportunity to go into business with Lord Sugar himself and they must continue to prove themselves over the coming weeks.Producers of the programme said the two teams adopted different tactics, with one opting to scour Dubai's famous traditional souks while the other attempted to sniff out bargains at one of the city's mega malls.If nothing else, the show highlights the fact that Dubai is not only a global shopping hotspot, but a thriving business hub too.The episode is also likely to give viewers an insight into the emirate's stunning multi-million dollar hotels. More and more luxurious resorts are springing up across the city all the time and investors from all over the world are increasingly keen to pump money into Dubai's lucrative hospitality sector. Continue reading
Dubai airport passenger numbers up 19% in April
April was the fifth consecutive month with more than five million passengers passing through the Dubai airport. Dubai International recorded nine straight months of double-digit growth as passenger numbers in April jumped 18.7 per cent to 5.41 million over the same period last year, operator Dubai Airports said in a statement on Monday. It added that April was the fifth consecutive month with more than five million passengers passing through the world’s second busiest airport for international passenger traffic. India led the April growth at the Dubai airport with a total of 672,557 passengers, followed by the UK (419,053) and Saudi Arabia (405,695), Doha (207,146), London (201,587) and Jeddah (151,517), as per the report. The year to date traffic, meanwhile, increased by 16.3 per cent to 21.9 million passengers compared to 18.8 million recorded in the first four months of 2012, Dubai Airports said, adding that the largest increase in total passenger numbers was recorded on the Western European routes (+207,120 passengers). And the Middle Eastern routes that were affected by political instability until the beginning of 2013 recorded moderate growth in April (+23,365). Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports, said in a statement that growth should continue at a similar pace in the next quarter and beyond. “Accordingly we are continually increasing capacity at Dubai International, the most recent example of which was the opening of the first phase of expansion at Terminal 2,” he said. Aircraft movements at the airport, meanwhile, increased by 6.9 per cent to 30,469 compared to 28,503 recorded in April 2012, as per the estimates, while year to date aircraft movements totalled 121,599, an increase of 6.2 per cent compared to 114,517 during the same period in 2012. On the cargo front, April saw freight volumes increase by 7.3 per cent to 199,985 tons compared to 186,385 tons in April 2012. And the year to date cargo totalled 784,832 tons, up 11.5 per cent to 703,826 tons during the first four months last year. Continue reading
