INDIA: 2016 Emirates Crash, Indian Passengers Sue Boeing

Indian passengers have sued Boeing in a US court over the ill-fated Emirates B777 that crashed at Dubai Airport last year.

The suit, filed in Illinois’ Cook County Circuit Court, charges the manufacturer with a security switch in the aircraft’s electronics system that the passengers say did not not function at a critical moment during the attempted landing.

All 300 passengers aboard the plane survived, but over 24 passengers were reportedly injured in the crash on 3 August, 2016, the worst in Emirates’ history.

Earlier this month, the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority had ruled out deficiencies in the aircraft or its engines as a cause for the crash, but said the investigation could take another two to three years to conclude.

Neither Boeing or the GCAA have provided further details about the investigation or the lawsuit.



Tourism Observer

UAE: Guest Dies In Sharjah Hotel

A 45-year-old Swedish national of Iraqi origin was found dead at a hotel room in Sharjah under mysterious circumstances, local media has reported.

The deceased arrived a week ago along with his family to celebrate the New Year in Dubai, according to Khaleej Times.

A police team of CIDs, forensic laboratory, paramedics shifted the man to Al Kuwaiti hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The police launched an investigation, holding many people, including his friends who spent time with him in Dubai, stating they cannot rule out criminal act before the forensic report is produced.

The deceased was due to depart through Dubai Airport later in the day to rejoin his family back home.

The hotel management said one of his friends who came to visit him at the hotel found him unconscious and requested to call the ambulance.

The hotel management added that its staff did not notice any suspicious or mysterious act during the guests stay.

UAE: Dubai Airport To Stop Immigration Queues

Dubai International airport could introduce contactless departures as early as next year, according to one senior official.

The initiative will do away with the need for many of the immigration counters, while Emirates could introduce immigration on board its flights prior to landing.

“We are coordinating with other partners and the contactless process will be launched in the first quarter of 2016,” Major General Obaid Muhair bin Surour, deputy director of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs-Dubai.

Speaking at Gitex, Surour said the contactless departures would be introduced in the first phase, followed by arrivals in the second phase.

Emirates passengers could also avail of the improved service, with passengers able to complete the immigration or smart gate process on board a flight using similar technology.

He explained that the airport would use advance passenger information and Iris on the Move (IOM) technology (biometrics) to ensure that passengers pass through departures and arrivals a lot quicker.

Dubai International currently has 125 e-gates and smart gates that ensure residents don’t have to stop at immigration gates, and while Al Maktoum does not have e-gates or smart gates, there are plans to introduce them next year.

UAE: Dubai Airport To Remove Passport Control At Terminal 3

Traveller’s details, at the time of booking their ticket with Emirates airline, will be passed on to the passport control officers.

In a bid to expedite passenger movement through Dubai airport, the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) has announced plans to do away with the passport control counters from the departures wing of Terminal 3.

If this plan is implemented, passengers will no longer have to queue at passport control counters. Instead, the traveller’s details, at the time of booking their ticket with Emirates airline, will be passed on to the passport control officers. Once the ticket is booked, passengers will simply be able to walk through to the departure gates after checking in.

“The plan is still under study and has to be approved before implementation,” a GDRFA official said, “If it is, all that is going to change is removal of the passport control counters. All other procedures will remain the same.”

However, immigration officers will still be present at the terminal and will receive traveller’s information, and they are authorised to stop any traveller whose details reveal a criminal case against him or any other reason that bars them from leaving the country.

A number of International airports have adopted a similar approach in their departures wing, including San Francisco International Airport.

Major General Mohanmmad Ahmad Al Merri, Director-General of the GDRFA, said on Tuesday that this step will enhance the GDRFA’s services at the airport.

“We want our clients to enjoy fast and hassle-free travel,” he said.

Dubai airport is one of the busiest in the world, he said. “It requires efficiency on the GDRFA’s part to handle the large number of passengers using the airport,” said Maj Gen Al Merri. :More than 71 million passengers used the airport in 2014. We are expecting 78 million travellers to use Dubai airport this year.”

Smart Gates and E-Gates

The objective of moving huge volumes of passengers with efficiency has led Dubai airpot to adopt many measures.

Lt Col Talal Al Shanqity, assistant of the director General of the GDRFA-Dubai for Airports’ Affairs Department, said the airport has installed more than 100 e-gates at Terminals 1 and 2.

Smart gates are available at Terminal 3 arrivals, which allows registered travellers to clear the immigration process in only 10 to 15 seconds by using either a passport, Emirates ID, Smart Gate card or even a QR barcode via the GDRFA DUBAI smartphone app.

A special needs counter at the smart gate is available which allows passengers in wheelchairs to go through it easily, said Lt Col Al Shanqity.

Currently, there are 28 smart gates at the arrival wing of Terminal 3, he added. There are 100 e-gates across the terminals at the airport and they can be accessed by e-gate card or by Emirates Airline Skywards.

Another change to be effected soon, said Lt Col Al Shanqity is that travellers will not have arrival or departure dates stamped in their passports. The stamp will be replaced by a sticker.

Visa smartphone app

According to Maj Waleed Ahmad Saeed, Director of the Dubai Airport Passport Control at Terminal 3, an app will be available soon on smartphones that will allow visitors to check the duration of their stay as per their visa. If they have overstayed their visit, the app will allow them to pay the fine.

“We try our best to speed up the process for each and every traveller, even for those who have cases against them,” said Maj Saeed. “We try to complete processing their details at the counter in under 40 seconds.

“Despite working under pressure and dealing with angry travellers at times, we deal with passengers in a civilised manner and pay them due respect,” said Muna Saif Al Muhairi, a passport control officer at Terminal 3.

“Sometimes, people have issues with their passports which may have expired, or with expired visas. We try our best to help people avoid legal issues,” said Warrant Officer Haytham Ali at the GDRFA airport office.

UAE: Flydubai Reaches 50 Aircraft

Taking delivery of flydubai’s 50th 737-800 aircraft at Boeing Field, Seattle earlier this week were: James Vial, Senior VP, Flight Operations at flydubai; Captains Wilhelm Guna and Alan Hopps; Alan Smith and Solomon Yimer from Engineering and Maintenance; and Jocelyn Duff from Network Control. This completes the order the airline placed for 50 aircraft at the Farnborough Air Show in 2008. This 50th aircraft departed Seattle for Iceland before flying on to Amman in Jordan where it will have its seats and IFE systems fitted.

It has taken flydubai just under 76 months since operating its first commercial flight on 1 June 2009 (to Beirut) to grow its fleet to 50 aircraft, all of them 737-800s. Since then it has started over 110 routes from Dubai’s main airport and last year the carrier transported over 7.2 million passengers. Growth was relatively modest in 2014 primarily as a result of the runway maintenance works at Dubai Airport which significantly reduced operations for several months. Growth has been rapid (with the exception of 2014) and the airline now operates well over 100 daily departures from Dubai Airport.

Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran generate most routes

The airline’s extensive network covers over 90 destinations in over 40 countries. Based on weekly departures the leading country market by some distance is Saudi Arabia, with 137 weekly departures in the first week of October, representing almost 17% of the airline’s entire weekly movements. These are spread across 13 destinations in Saudi Arabia, with nine of them served at least daily. Some way behind in terms of weekly departures is Kuwait. All 80 weekly services to the country are to the capital, Kuwait City, making it the airline’s single busiest route.

While Russia ranks only tenth in terms of total weekly departures, these are spread across 10 different airports. Similarly, Iran ranks as only the seventh biggest country market but flydubai operates to nine different airports in the country.

Given the political situation in some of the countries within the range of flydubai’s 737-800s it is no surprise that some destinations have been suspended in recent years. These include airports in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen. Between now and the end of the year flydubai will be adding several more destinations to its network; Novosibirsk (starting 4 October) and Nizhniy Novgorod in Russia (7 October), Asmara in Eritrea (25 October) and Astana in Kazakhstan (26 October).

From 25 October the airline will start to split its operations by launching flights from Dubai Al Maktoum, Dubai’s second airport. Daily (or double-daily) flights will be introduced to Amman, Beirut, Chittagong, Doha, Kathmandu, Kuwait and Muscat. All of these destinations are already served from the airline’s main hub and will continue to be served after these new routes begin.
Overlaps with Emirates on 34 routes; Prague is longest sector

Maybe surprisingly, flydubai operates to 34 destinations that are also served by Emirates from Dubai. With Emirates operating a high-quality service on an all wide-body fleet of aircraft, flydubai targets a different passenger segment, one for whom price is more important than comfort. Segmented by geography the 34 destinations served by both airlines are summarised in the following table.

The airline’s longest sector is to Prague in the Czech Republic, at 4,461 kilometres. The route was started last December as was the airline’s second longest sector to Bratislava in Slovakia. The airline’s shortest sector is to Bandar Abbas in Iran at just 240 kilometres.

Future growth will come from the airline’s next batch of aircraft orders. flydubai will receive 11 737-800NGs between 2016 and 2017, followed by 100 737 MAX between 2017 and 2023. This could give it a fleet of over 150 aircraft by 2023 if not many of the airline’s earlier 737-800s are passed on to other carriers to maintain the fleet’s low average age.

The launch last December of flights to Bratislava in Slovakia was part of a wave of new services to Central Europe which also included Prague, Sarajevo, Sofia and Zagreb. Prague and Bratislava are flydubai’s two longest sectors at 4,461 kilometres and 4,179 kilometres respectively.