Ajman Free Zone released its first ‘Annual Sustainability Report’ as part of its efforts to protect the environment, advance the economy, and promote social sustainability in line with Ajman Vision 2021 and the Emirates Energy Strategy 2050.
During its first-ever participation at WETEX 2021, Ajman Free Zone also introduced ‘Sustainability Awards’ for free zone companies.
H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, The Chairman of the Board of Ajman Free Zone Authority, said that this year’s WETEX served as an opportunity for the free zone to showcase its latest solutions and innovations in keeping with Ajman’s sustainable development process.
On the recently released ‘Annual Sustainability Report,’ H.H. Al Nuaimi noted that the report highlights the role of Ajman Free Zone in the sustainability initiatives of both Ajman and the UAE and their commitment to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.
He also pointed out the importance of laying the foundation for a sustainable economic growth while enhancing environmental security and ensuring efficient consumption of natural resources.
H.H. Al Nuaimi said, “Ajman Free Zone is keen to follow a sustainable approach for all its operations and services, as well as enhance its cooperation with partners and stakeholders to advance the sustainable development framework.
“We have been working to align our initiatives with the priorities and objectives of Ajman Vision 2021, UAE Vision 2021, and the National Agenda, a move that reflects our determination to contribute to SDGs. We are proud to launch our sustainability report, which will allow us to chart our path towards a sustainable business performance in the coming years and make sustainability a primary priority in our decisions, initiatives, and long-term goals.”
The first edition of the report includes a comprehensive disclosure of Ajman Free Zone’s sustainable performance in 2020. The free zone used the main GRI standards as a reference in drafting the report, and it is currently working on developing a mechanism to measure its compliance with GRI standards.
H.E. Eng. Ali AlSuwaidi, Director General of Ajman Free Zone, also explained that the sustainability report confirms the free zone’s commitment to adopt the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, which are key to fulfilling its social and environmental responsibilities in line with SDGs and the sustainability goals of Ajman and the UAE.
AlSuwaidi said, “The sustainability report is also a tool for us to monitor our sustainable development projects at the local and national levels. It provides a detailed explanation of our approaches and work mechanisms in managing our environmental, social, and economic impact. It also highlights our progress in implementing our strategies and business plans in relation to SDGs.”
Sustainability Awards will help accelerate Ajman’s shift to a green economy and promote the green projects of both the free zone and the emirate. This step reflects Ajman Free Zone’s commitment to support climate actions in line with its CSR agenda and create environment-friendly innovations to achieve sustainability.
The ‘Sustainability Award,’ to be bestowed on Ajman Free Zone’s business partners, is divided into five categories, namely ‘Green Initiatives;’ ‘Green Projects;’ ‘Green Technology;’ ‘Green Training and Awareness Programs;’ and ‘Environment-Friendly Companies and Brands.’
By launching the award, Ajman Free Zone is encouraging its business partners to integrate sustainable practices into their respective businesses. By adopting environment-friendly business methodologies, they will have access to relevant financial support as well as fulfill their social and environmental responsibilities more effectively.
Ajman Free Zone revealed also new packages for companies involved in water technology, sustainable solutions, and clean energy innovations.
The announcement reflects its continuous support for the growth and expansion of companies, especially those involved in sustainability and other priority areas. The packages include registration fee exemption; a 15% discount on the rent of the free zone’s environment-friendly warehouses; and a 50% discount on Ajman Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s membership fees.
Apart from supporting business growth and expansion, Ajman Free Zone also seeks to stimulate more commercial and investment activities in the emirate and the UAE, advance climate actions, and accelerate their sustainable economic growth.
All these are in line with the country’s preparations for the next 50 years, which will open a new era of progress and development for the UAE. The free zone’s strategy is designed to establish a culture of environmental commitment and green transformation in the country as drivers of sustainable economic and social development.
Etihad Rail signed a strategic partnership with Herrenknecht, one of the oldest and largest companies specialized in tunneling solutions, to develop new tunnel designs and construction technologies.
The agreement comes in line with Etihad Rail’s commitment to foster a culture of innovation and adopt the best international practices in various fields.
Under this agreement, Etihad Rail will send young Emirati engineers to undergo training at the Herrenknecht Academy, at its headquarters in Germany, to exchange knowledge, acquire the necessary expertise, enhance their skills and capabilities, and gain first-hand experience in the field of tunneling.
In addition, the two companies will cooperate to explore areas of optimizing the design and construction of the UAE National Rail Network’s tunnels, and exchange technical information and standards to assess the feasibility of tunneling projects and mechanized tunneling technologies.
FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. and the world’s largest express transportation company, is transitioning to a direct-serve presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to meet the country’s growing international shipping demands.
The company will invest more than SAR1.5 billion ($400 million) into the Saudi economy over the next 10 years through talent management and local operations and infrastructure.
This investment will reaffirm the company’s commitment to the country’s non-oil economic growth, in line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goals, and the ‘National Industrial Development and Logistics Program’ which seeks to increase non-oil exports to more than SAR1 trillion (approximately $266 billion).
FedEx Express has been facilitating trade in Saudi Arabia since 1994, offering international solutions and connectivity through local service providers, most recently through SAB Express. The announcement and the company’s direct presence in the country will further help local businesses trade with ease and expand their reach into the more than 220 countries and territories FedEx serves.
Jack Muhs, regional president of FedEx Express Middle East, Indian Subcontinent, and Africa said, “Our customers will be able to take advantage of FedEx digital tools and a wider service portfolio. This strategic expansion in the Kingdom will help Saudi-based businesses connect to new markets and customers around the world, supporting Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goals to diversify the national economy.”
“In addition to our commitment to the Saudi economy, we see FedEx Express playing an important role in developing the small and medium enterprise environment in Saudi Arabia, which forms the backbone of the economy, and represents 99% of Saudi Arabia’s private sector,” continued Muhs.
FedEx Express will continue to work closely with SAB Express to provide pickup, delivery, and customs clearance services across the country. Sheikh Salah Al Bluewi, chairman of SAB Express said, “We’re happy to continue supporting FedEx Express in Saudi Arabia with their growth journey, and join them in playing a critical role in developing Saudi Arabia’s logistics infrastructure, in line with the country’s coordinated efforts and strategy in diversifying the economy. The logistics sector is a key contributor towards employment, investment, and overall economic growth in our nation.”
Under Saudi Vision 2030, the Kingdom is committed to increasing its total air cargo capacity. With nearly 50 years of experience, specialized services, and advanced technology solutions, FedEx will support the trade requirements of the healthcare, e-commerce, technology, energy, aerospace, automotive, and petrochemical sectors.
Juan Carlos Salazar of Colombia has officially assumed the office of ICAO Secretary General, succeeding Dr. Fang Liu of China.
He assumes this role as CEO of the UN’s specialized agency for civil aviation as the international flight network continues to assure the efficient global movement of food, vaccines, e-commerce, and other essential supplies and personnel, despite the air transport industry still being severely confronted by COVID-19, greatly diminished routes, and slowly rebounding international air travel and tourism.
“It is a great honor to be assuming this role at this time, and to have the opportunity to help governments and ICAO play an important part in how this sector builds back better and recovers from the global pandemic,” Salazar commented. “We are still facing some tremendous challenges to the restoration of global air connectivity today, and with many regions and populations all over the world facing prolonged economic, social, and emotional hardship as a result.”
Salazar is a former Director General of Civil Aviation for Colombia, and speaks fluent Spanish, English, French, and basic Arabic. He has more than 26 years of experience in civil aviation, public policy, and the management of large and complex organizations, and plans to work closely with the ICAO Council to further strengthen the agency’s governance and ethical framework, to review the organizational structure of the Secretariat, to build a digital transformation program, and to modernize the working methods of the Organization to keep pace with aviation innovation.
Air France-KLM has appointed Sylvain Mathias as the new regional commercial director Middle East, based at the company’s regional headquarters in Dubai Airport Free Zone.
Mathias has taken over this role from Wilson Tauro who moved with the company to South Africa as the new Country Manager.
In his new role, Mathias is responsible for the regional team covering pricing, marketing and business intelligence for the Middle East including the company’s seven online markets – Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. He reports directly to the Air France-KLM General Manager Middle East.
Mathias has held several senior roles with Air France-KLM in business development, sales, and corporate strategy, including regional commercial/sales director roles in Greater China, North America and Near East. He joins the Middle East team from his previous role as Regional Commercial Director Near East based in Beirut, Lebanon. Sylvain Mathias is a graduate of the Ecole de Management de Lyon, France, and holds a Master’s degree in business administration.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced the appointment of Brendan Sullivan as IATA’s Global Head of Cargo with immediate effect.
Sullivan has worked in air cargo for 20 years including spending 14 years at IATA. Since January, he has been acting Global Head of Cargo alongside his role as Head of Cargo Operations and E-Commerce.
Recent achievements include leading two key IATA initiatives:
The One Source platform: This provides comprehensive information on infrastructure capabilities critical to taking advantage of special cargo and e-commerce activities.
The IATA FACE Campaign: This builds the next generation of air cargo leadership by attracting, developing, and retaining young talent within the air cargo industry. Over 200 cargo professionals are engaged in the initiative.
Sullivan began his career in air cargo at Air Canada in 2000, where he gained frontline operational experience and developed expertise in dangerous goods handling that facilitated his transition to IATA in 2007.
“Brendan will be a great Global Head of Air Cargo. He knows the industry from frontline operations to the development of global standards. He recognizes the critical need for modernisation to meet the needs of air cargo’s biggest business opportunities—e-commerce and special cargo. And he has the passion to drive a post-crisis agenda that will strengthen air cargo’s contribution to the global economy and to the airline business,” said Nick Careen, IATA’s Senior Vice President for Operations, Safety and Security.
Flydubai has launched flights to Warsaw and Budapest from September.
The carrier will operate four weekly flights from Dubai International (DXB) to Budapest International Airport (BUD) and daily flights to Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW). This will be the carrier’s second destination in Poland after Krakow (KRK).
Representative of this new direct airlink, the first flight to Budapest was piloted by Captain Fabian Laszlo from Hungary and First Officer Eisa Al Suwaidi from the UAE. In addition, among the Hungarian cabin crew operating the inaugural flight was the Captain’s daughter, Senior Cabin Crew Cserne Fabiana Rebeka and Cabin Crew Toth Reka. The inaugural flight to Warsaw was operated with Polish nationals including Senior Cabin Crew Agata Samborska and Cabin Crew members Katarzyna Boryna and Paulina Kaniowska.
Ghaith Al Ghaith, chief executive officer at Flydubai, said, “we have seen growing demand for travel this summer and with the start of flights to Budapest and Warsaw, we are expanding our network over the winter schedule to offer our passengers more choice for travel. Our newly launched operations to Hungary and Poland will also strengthen links with the UAE.”
Qatar Airways will resume services to Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz International Airport, Medina starting 1 October 2021 with four weekly flights.
The Medina services will be operated by the airline’s state-of-the-art Airbus A320 featuring 12 seats in First Class and 132 seats in Economy Class. The resumption of services will enable passengers flying from and to Medina to enjoy seamless connectivity to over 140 destinations of the airline’s extensive global network in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas via the best airport in the world, Hamad International Airport.
Qatar Airways will also launch a new service to Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt on 3 December with twice weekly flights, this new route will follow the resumption of operations to Luxor on 23 November with four weekly flights. In a further expansion of services to Egypt, Qatar Airways will also increase its Cairo service starting from 1 October 2021, increasing flights to the capital to triple daily. The resumption of operations to Luxor and launching of flights to Sharm El-Sheikh sees Qatar Airways now operate a total of 34 weekly flights to Egypt via the World’s Best Airport, Hamad International Airport (HIA) as voted by Skytrax. The new services will be operated by an Airbus A320 aircraft, featuring 12 seats in First Class and 132 seats in Economy Class.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced that Etihad Airways, Jazeera Airways, Jetstar, Qantas, Qatar Airways and Royal Jordanian, will implement the IATA Travel Pass in a phased rollout across the airlines’ networks.
These five airlines join Emirates Airline as IATA Travel Pass implementation pioneers.
The announcement, made on the sidelines of the 77th IATA Annual General Meeting being held in Boston, follows 11 months of extensive testing by 76 airlines.
“After months of testing, IATA Travel Pass is now entering the operational phase. The app has proven itself to be an effective tool to manage the complex mess of travel health credentials that governments require. And it’s a great vote of confidence that some of the world’s best known airline brands will be making it available to their customers over the coming months,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.
The app offers a safe and secure way for travelers to check the requirements for their journey, receive test results and scan their vaccine certificates, verify that these meet the destination and transit requirements and share these effortlessly with health officials and airlines prior to departure. This will avoid queuing and congestion for document checks—to the benefit of travelers, airlines, airports and governments.
IATA Travel Pass is a mobile app that can receive and verify a range of COVID-19 test results and digital vaccines certificates. Currently vaccine certificates from 52 countries (representing the source of 56% of global air travel) can be managed using the app. This will increase to 74 countries, representing 85% of global traffic, by the end of November.
IATA Travel Pass is expected to play a key role in the aviation industry’s recovery from the impact of COVID-19. A digitalized solution to manage the paperwork of COVID-19 travel health credentials will support a return to travel when borders reopen. With many governments relying on airlines for COVID-19 document checking this will be critical in avoiding queues and congestion at check-in as travel ramps up.
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