News

Air Arabia (AIRARABI:DFM) will become the first low-cost airline from the Middle East and Africa to connect the region with China next month. Starting on February 10, 2015, the Sharjah-headquartered carrier will fly regular non-stop services to Urumqi, the largest city in Western China. Located in the Xinjiang district of China, Urumqi is a modern industrial city of 3.3 million ...

Sharjah’s award-winning integrated environmental and waste management company, Bee’ah, announced its new, state-of-the-art, eco-friendly headquarters during the first day of the World Future Energy Summit 2015 (WFES) in Abu Dhabi this week. The new Bee’ah headquarters building, which takes its inspiration from desert sand dunes, has been designed by Prtizker prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid and reflects the organisation’s passion for ...

Popular Sharjah-based hop-on, hop-off city tour operator City Sightseeing Sharjah and its new City Sightseeing counterpart in neighbouring Dubai are connecting to allow tourists holding a 48-hour validity ticket to visit tourism attractions in both cities. Ranked #1 out of 28 activities to do in Sharjah by globally respected travel site Tripadvisor, City Sightseeing Sharjah was launched by the Sharjah ...

Rafi Agri Foods International FZC, a leading agri-commodity trading firm based in the Sharjah Airport International Free Zone (SAIF Zone) has announced its acquisition of a 20 percent stake in Delta Food Industries (FZC), one of the UAE’s fastest growing food exporters. A company statement estimated Delta Foods’ exports at over 250 TEUs (twenty-foot-equivalent units) per month, nearly 70 percent ...

Sharjah International Airport passenger traffic increased 12 percent in 2014 to 9.5 million passengers, compared with 8.5 million during 2013. The airport has enjoyed accelerated growth over the past three years, achieving 13 percent passenger growth in both 2012 and 2013, in line with its goal of handling 25 million passengers by the year 2025. A total of 70,559 flights ...

The 2015 World Forum for Foreign Direct Investment will focus on the impact of geopolitics on foreign direct investment (FDI). The forum, hosted by the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) and organised by Conway Events, will be held from 9 – 10 February in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates: the first time that the event has taken place in the ...

Sharjah’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry is to launch a new Sharjah Exports Development Centre next week. The centre will help promote and develop exports from Sharjah industries to regional and global markets. The Exports Development Centre is one of a wide range of initiatives undertaken by Sharjah government departments and authorities to help capitalise on the emirate’s strong economic ...

Sharjah-headquartered terminal operator Gulftainer has reported that the Sharjah Container Terminal (SCT) handled 400,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) during 2014, recording double-digit growth compared to previous year’s volumes. SCT is managed and operated by Gulftainer on behalf of the Sharjah Port Authority. The terminal operator credited the arrival of new services throughout the year with boosting throughput, including UASC’s Gulf India ...

Sharjah-headquartered budget carrier Air Arabia (AIRARABI:DFM) has announced plans to open a new international hub at Amman Queen Alia International Airport in Jordan following its acquisition of a 49 percent stake in Petra Airlines. Air Arabia, which is the first and largest low-cost carrier (LCC) in the Middle East and North Africa, already has hubs in Alexandria (Egypt), Casablanca (Morocco), ...

The Emirate of Sharjah’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth could reach 13 percent in 2014, according to comments made by Hussain Mohamed Al Mahmoudi, director-general of Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry to UAE newspaper Khaleej Times. Al Mahmoudi informed the paper that the Chamber expected the emirate’s GDP to reach AED 113 billion (US$30.8 b) this year compared to ...