Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Etihad Airways is introducing its award-winning A380 on the Abu Dhabi – Paris route this summer as part of seasonal adjustments to the airline’s fleet deployment plan. Featuring the carrier’s revolutionary The Residence – the world’s first three-room suite on a commercial airliner – the aircraft will operate on one of its twice-daily services ...

  Bloomberg Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce, who is steering Qantas Airways Ltd. through a successful three-year transformation, has one word of advice for Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. — adapt. On Wednesday, Hong Kong’s flagship carrier reported its first annual loss since 2008 as declining demand for business travel and competition from Chinese rivals eroded earnings. While Joyce’s restructuring at ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG said a slide in fares triggered by excess capacity is beginning to slow, easing the burden on earnings as fuel costs rise. Adjusted operating profit will decline “slightly” in 2017 after the figure dropped 3.6 percent to 1.75 billion euros ($1.9 billion) last year, Lufthansa said in a statement on Thursday. The guidance for this ...

  Bloomberg J Sainsbury Plc said it’s cutting costs in an effort to avoid raising prices in response to the drop in the pound, after sales fell in its core grocery business. British supermarket chains have begun raising prices for the first time in more than two years as the slide in sterling since the U.K. voted to leave the ...

  Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co.’s new Galaxy S8 will employ facial-recognition technology for mobile payments within months of release, adding cutting-edge security to help the marquee device stand out from rivals such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone, people familiar with the matter said. The Galaxy S8 to be unveiled later this month will blend fingerprint, iris and facial detection to verify ...

  Bloomberg Swatch Group AG said it’s developing an alternative to the iOS and Android operating systems for smartwatches as Switzerland’s largest maker of timepieces vies with Silicon Valley for control of consumers’ wrists. The first product using the Swiss-made system will be a Tissot smartwatch to be introduced at the end of 2018, Swatch Chief Executive Officer Nick Hayek ...

  Bloomberg Google Inc. is scaling up investment in Africa by laying fiber optic cable, easing access to cheaper Android phones and training a workforce in digital skills as the US technology giant seeks to expand on the continent. “We laid about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of fiber in Uganda and we are busy doing about 1,000 kilometers in Ghana,’’ ...

  Emirates Business Mobile phones have evolved considerably over the past two decades from being just simple communication devices to becoming the most innovative compact entertainment systems empowering people to view content on demand whilst having the ability to share their most intimate moments all from the palm of their hand. Smartphones are rapidly increasing in demand across the world ...

  Dubai / WAM H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, on Wednesday announced that Dubai’s non-oil foreign trade in 2016 reached AED1.276 trillion despite the global slowdown. Sheikh Hamdan pointed out that the value of Dubai’s external trade rose 70 percent from AED754 billion in 2009 to AED1.276 trillion in 2016. ...

  Kuwait / Emirates Business The State of Kuwait on Wednesday announced that it has successfully issued its inaugural dual-tranche USD 8 billion bond offering into the international debt markets. Notes due in 2022 (the five-year Bonds) and for the value of USD 3.5 billion and notes due in 2027 (the 10-year Bonds) for the value of USD 4.5 billion. ...