NEWS

Track-laying works across Al Dhafrah Region in Package A of Stage Two of the UAE’s national railway were inaugurated by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Ruler’s Representative in Al Dhafra Region.

His Highness was briefed by Shadi Malak, Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Rail, on the construction progress of Package A, which will connect the UAE rail network to Al Ghuwaifat on the Saudi border and the wider GCC region. Having started in early 2020, steady progress has been made on construction of Package A, which is now 59% complete.

A progress report presentation was also held, it revealed that across Package A half of the soil preparation works have been completed, with 79% of sand and rock cutting also finished.

The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC), the developer behind the world’s most ambitious regenerative tourism project, has named daa International as the operator of The Red Sea Project’s unique and iconic airport. daa International will provide airfield and terminal operations, aviation services, facilities management and commercial activities, as well as corporate and financial services. “Our state-of-the-art airport will provide a unique gateway for guests arriving at our destination, and this announcement is an important step in bringing the experience to life ahead of welcoming visitors by the end of 2022,” said John Pagano, CEO of TRSDC. “daa International was selected because we are confident that they can deliver not only an airport experience worthy of our luxury destination, but for their commitment to ensuring our sustainability goals are met.” daa International will manage the operations of the airport during three separate stages. Stage one will involve ensuring that all airport designs benefit the customer. Stage two covers planning a full and seamless operational model for the airport when it opens to the public. The final stage will be to manage and operate this plan, maintaining the highest standards in customer experience and sustainability, and prioritizing safety and security.

“The Red Sea International Airport will become a fundamental part of each visitor’s journey to this unique destination, and we believe their holiday experience should start from the moment they land,” said daa International Chief Executive, Nick Cole. “That is why we intend to deliver a seamless airport experience for passengers, underpinned by a commitment to achieving TRSDC’s stringent sustainability goals. We’re pleased to play our role in helping to open up this new destination and wonderful country to the rest of the world.”

The Red Sea International Airport is accessible by 80 percent of the world’s population in less than eight hours and is set to serve one million passengers annually by the project’s completion in 2030, with a peak capacity of 900 passengers per hour. Visitor numbers will be limited to one million, based on the environmental carrying capacity of the destination. The entire transport network at the site, including the airport, will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy. In line with TRSDC’s commitment to set new standards in regenerative tourism, the airport is designed to include shaded areas and natural ventilation that minimizes reliance on air conditioning.

TRSDC awarded the airport design contract to international architecture firm Foster + Partners in October 2019, after it presented exciting designs that are explicitly informed by the natural Saudi landscape. TRSDC also awarded a contract for construction of a Code F runway, Code B seaplane runway, aprons, taxiways, helipad, roads and navigation aids to a Saudi joint-venture, Nesma + Partners and Almabani, earlier this year and work is well underway at the site.

Upon completion in 2030, The Red Sea Project will comprise 50 hotels, offering up to 8,000 hotel rooms and around 1,300 residential properties across 22 islands and six inland sites. The destination will also include a luxury marina, entertainment and leisure facilities.

The leading wholesaler in the Swiss organic market, Bio Partner, has doubled its output following the implementation of innovative robotic logistics from Swisslog at its facility in Aargau, Switzerland.

Bio Partner supplies business customers in the organic specialist trade as well as the rest of the retail and food industry from its location in Seon. As a result of the merger with Somona GmbH, the warehouse reached its performance and capacity limits, and the wholesaler turned to a local partner with a global footprint to deliver an automated storage system.

The 12,200 metre square warehouse handles 10,000+ products, a process now optimized thanks to the highperformance AutoStore storage solution, delivered by global warehouse automation specialist, Swisslog, a member of the KUKA group.

“Companies with large warehouses have to constantly work on increasing efficiency and our robot systems work flawlessly around the clock,” says Swisslog CEO, Dr. Christian Baur. The aim of this new system from Swisslog is to automate the storage and picking of the dry assortment and to compress it in terms of volume.

The new AutoStore system at Bio Partner has 44 robots with the ability to handle 25,000 containers and at least 6,000 products completely autonomously. “The high-tech robots create a volume of 900 containers per hour and, depending on the development, this system can still be expanded considerably,” says CEO, Dr. Baur. The orders are automatically transmitted to the AutoStore system and processed in accordance with parallel processes, which is a huge advantage in large warehouses. This means that higher volumes can be made available in a shorter time. Picking errors cost time and money, and robots don’t make mistakes since the hardware and software work together perfectly. Bio Partner relies on the modular warehouse management software SynQ from Swisslog to orchestrate the warehouse and picking processes based on data-based insights.

“Our company relies on long-term, sustainable partnerships. With Swisslog, we found a strong local partner and the system installation was quick and easy,” commented Lukas Mettler, head of warehouse logistics at Bio Partner.

As a leading global integrator with over 200 realized projects, this is just one example of many projects which showcase the wide implementation spectrum of AutoStore empowered by Swisslog.

Cathay Pacific Cargo is launching a new scheduled freighter service between Hong Kong and Riyadh (RUH) starting 5 January 2021. The airline has seen a growing demand for air cargo flights between Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong (HKG), a leading cargo and logistics hub in Asia. These new flights will meet the strong demand for shipments of ecommerce and other general cargo such as garments, providing our customers with reliable, efficient and direct air cargo services offering the high level of quality for which Cathay Pacific Cargo is known. The inaugural flight on 5 January will see Cathay Pacific Cargo operate the service using its Boeing B747-400 ERF aircraft.

Cathay Pacific Cargo has launched a number of scheduled and charter services recently to meet the air cargo needs of its customers. On 16 December 2020, the airline launched a seasonal cargo service between Hong Kong and Hobart in Australia, providing an important airfreight lane for the export of fresh produce from Hobart to various parts of Asia via Hong Kong. Meanwhile in September last year, the airline launched a temporary service to Pittsburgh in the US to serve the seasonal upsurge in demand. In addition to operating a full freighter flight schedule, Cathay Pacific has also been operating thousands of pairs of cargoonly passenger flights, some with cargo loaded in the passenger cabins, and chartered hundreds of pairs of flights from its all-cargo subsidiary Air Hong Kong to provide additional air freight capacity.

H.E. Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Bahrain Economic Development Board

Testament to the success of regionwide economic diversification efforts, Middle Eastern cities performed impressively in the inaugural Transport and Warehousing Cities of the Future ranking, produced by fDi Intelligence – a specialist division of the Financial Times. Middle Eastern economies’ strong performance in a sector traditionally dominated by the Asia-Pacific region comes in spite of global supply chain disruption owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Kingdom of Bahrain’s Al Hidd was ranked first globally in the Transport and Warehousing Cost Effectiveness category, which also saw both Egypt’s Port Said and Damietta as well as Dubai and Abu Dhabi included in the top 10. In this category a range of data points were examined such as the cost of construction permits, fuel prices, electricity prices, and tax rates amongst others. Bahrain is one of the region’s most cost-effective distribution hubs. According to the KPMG Cost of Doing Business Report 2019, Bahrain offers up to 43% operational costs savings, and 33% savings in living costs when compared to the region, as well as, zero corporate and income tax and no free zone restrictions.

Bahrain and the UAE also ranked in the top 10 for the Economic Potential category. The top ranking for cities overall was awarded to Hong Kong, with Dubai and Abu Dhabi at fourth and sixth place respectively.

Bahrain’s Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications H.E. Engineer Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed commented: “Bahrain has long prided itself in offering the many global manufacturing and logistics players a place to call home with some of the most competitive setup and operating costs in the GCC. We are therefore delighted that Al Hidd City has been ranked so highly by fDi Intelligence for cost effectiveness in the Transport and Warehousing sectors – a testament to the Kingdom’s reputation as the region’s de facto transport and logistics hub.

“The year 2020 has been a challenging year for transport and logistics globally, but thanks to Bahrain’s strategic location at the nexus of the Middle East and our technologically streamlined customs processes, we have been able not just to maintain the continued flow of cross-border trade but enhance it, seeing a 13.5% year-on-year surge of shipments into Khalifa Bin Salman port in the first nine months of 2020. In 2021, we look forward to building on the successes of 2020, and welcoming many more global transport and logistics players seeking an efficient and cost-competitive gateway to the region’s largest market and beyond.”

Located at the nexus of the Middle East, Bahrain has earned a reputation as the region’s de facto transport and logistics hub and is fast emerging as the main regional distribution and fulfilment centre hub. The COVID-19 pandemic has catalysed the uptake of technology in these sectors, including the launch a first-of-its-kind “SmartHub” logistics warehouse for pharmaceuticals and food to be headquartered in Bahrain to serve the GCC market.

The Emirates Group today rolled out a COVID-19 vaccination programme for its substantial UAE based workforce in coordination with the Dubai Health Authority and the Ministry of Health and Prevention.

The inoculation drive began this morning, with priority being placed on its frontline aviation workforce, including Cabin Crew, Flight Deck and other operationally focused roles. The airline, along with dnata, are among the first transport and air services organisations in the world to offer employees the option to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. Over the course of the pandemic, Emirates and dnata have implemented multiple layers of safety measures, to ensure the health and safety of customers, employees and the communities served. The rollout of its vaccination programme is another step forward, helping to safeguard the health and wellbeing of aviation employees who serve the travelling public and help move essential goods around the world. The Emirates Group is making both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinopharm vaccines, which have been approved by the UAE health authorities, conveniently accessible to its employees at various company locations across the UAE. Inoculation appointments will run 12 hours a day, 7 days a week to ensure as many essential aviation workers as possible can get the vaccine. Like all citizens and residents, Emirates Group employees in the UAE can also opt to get vaccinated at government designated medical centres and clinics, as the UAE’s leadership and health authorities have spared no effort to make vaccines free and accessible to the population.

According to the data compiled by Our World In Data, a research website based at Oxford University, the UAE is ranked second highest in the world for vaccination rates, with over 19.04 doses administrated for every 100 people, and close to 1.9 million vaccinations have been given to citizens and residents since their rollout in December 2020. The UAE is also on track to inoculate over 50% of its population by the end of March.