Airline Celebrates 5th Anniversary with Free Flights for All

by Josh Lew on

United Arab Emirates-based Air Arabia will be celebrating its 5th birthday with a special treat for its customers. Everyone flying on the Persian Gulf’s original low-cost carrier on October 28th will fly for free. Passengers are still expected to pay any applicable airport taxes and fees. The free flights are for one day only and only include one-way service.

Before you get excited, you should know that the airline has a rather limited list of destinations. Outside of the Middle East, Air Arabia flies to India, Ukraine and Nepal. In all, there are 42 cities from which passengers can take advantage of the no cost specials.

Air Arabia is a regional leader in its niche; though younger budget carriers, like NAS and Jazeera Airways, are also competitive. But, things are looking quite rosy for Air Arabia. They recently inked a deal that will triple the size of their fleet (which currently consists of 15 Airbus A320s). If they keep up the pace of growth, one wonders what’ll be on tap for the 10th anniversary.

10 tips for smarter flying


Iranians the biggest gamblers in Asia? What are the odds?

by Aaron Hotfelder on

In the US, gambling online is technically illegal, but that doesn’t stop millions of Americans from playing poker and betting on sports over the internet. Some of us are even known to fund our travels that way (allegedly).

It turns out all of us dangerous gambling delinquents have something in common with the Iranians– we’re both fans of non-government-sanctioned internet gambling.

A British online gambling outfit called RummyRoyal has determined that the Islamic Republic of Iran has the highest ratio of online gamblers to population in all of Asia. This despite the fact that gambling is forbidden in Islam and under Sharia law.

Sasha Arkin, RummyRoyal’s game room manager, sees this as a good sign coming from Iran: “[T]hrough the exchange of messages and money, [Iranians] are breaking out of their isolation imposed by the State.”

It’s nice to know that the US and Iran, two countries often at odds with each other, have something in common: a propensity for passing dumb laws and an inability to enforce them. (Also we both like gambling.)

Internet failure hits several continents

by Anna Brones on

Internet has undoubtedly changed the way we communicate, travel, think, and even live. So what happens when there is an all out Internet failure? A good bit of chaos.

That’s exactly what happened today across large parts of the Middle East, Asia and North Africa, when tens of millions of Internet users were without a connection. India’s bandwidth was cut in half, posing problems for not only the outsourcing industry that is dependent on Internet connections, but also the stock exchanges in Delhi and Bombay. The United Arab Emirates was also hit hard, as the outage affected telephone and television services. Dubai’s businesses, notoriously known for their billion dollar a day transactions, were also stuck without a way to conduct affairs. Basically, things got messy.

As for travelers? Although sources from Emirate Airlines denied that the Internet failure would lead to flight delays, Dnata, a government group in charge of air travel services in the Middle East, admitted that they would most likely be facing some problems. So if you are traveling in that area today or through the weekend, I would recommend to be flexible and prepared for anything.

Burj Dubai: why does it have to go so high!?

by Abha Malpani on

Dubai is all about being the best, biggest, richest, poshest, greatest, hottest and having the longest, widest, highest, gaudiest, craziest…the list is endless.

When I lived there, when we read the news on these new and upcoming ‘superlative’ projects, we would joke about how Dubai really is an architectural representation of the male ego — constantly trying to prove who has got the biggest you-know-what. No offense intended.

Anyway, home to the world’s first and only 7-star hotel, man-made islands in the shape of a palm and the world — that can be seen from the moon (that’s how they marketed the New Year’s Eve bash in 2006: “be at the party that can be seen from the moon!” What a disaster it was!) — Dubai is also battling to be home to the worlds tallest building with the construction of the Burj Dubai.

Construction began in 2004, and today the building stands at 585.7 meters. They haven’t confirmed how high it’s going to be, because they want to win the race. If they declare the height, they are afraid someone else may beat them to it.

I have a friend who works on the architectural team of the Burj. He tells me how scared he is about the construction of this monstrosity. See, the structure works on paper, but since it’s aiming to be the tallest, its infrastructure has never been tested before.

What does that mean? They cannot foresee all consequences, so anything can happen; I see a danger flag. My friend says he will make sure he’s on the first flight out once he finishes his job; he’s not thrilled to be part of something so potentially dangerous.

Some of Dubai’s kicks are just beyond me. I enjoyed living there, but I’m glad to be out.

The Price of Gas Around the World

by Justin Glow on

The next time you pull into the station for a fill-up, keep this in mind before you curse the prices: People elsewhere have it a lot worse than we do in America (and we tend to gripe about it the most, it seems!). Take Asia for instance — Hong Kong averages a whopping $6.30 per gallon, with Seoul, South Korea, not too far behind. Europe also pays well above what we do in America. London, Berlin, Oslo, and Paris are all well above $6 a gallon. On the low end of the spectrum, places in the Middle East like Kuwait City and Tehran, Iran, pay under 79 cents for their gas. Big surprise there!

The lowest, however, is reserved for Caracas, Venezuela. 17 cents per gallon! [via]

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