Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG and British Airways parent IAG SA closed in on Air France-KLM Group at the top of Europe’s airline rankings in 2016 as passenger traffic at the Paris-based carrier was dented by pilot strikes and sluggish demand amid a spate of terrorist attacks. Lufthansa’s traffic, or the number of customers carried multiplied by the distance flown, ...

  Bloomberg In Chicago, not far from Lake Michigan, the driver of a Caterpillar Inc. bulldozer looked left, right and forward to maneuver the 230,000-pound (104-metric-ton) machine through a desert obstacle course of sand mounds and old tires. But for all his effort, he didn’t go anywhere. Instead, as he sat inside a stationary box lined with video screens at ...

  Reuters Shopping from the steering wheel will become possible this year as Ford Motor Co. begins taking Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa digital assistant along for the ride. The second largest US automaker said it will begin offering “Alexa in the car” this summer on vehicles equipped with its Sync 3 infotainment system. An automotive version of Amazon’s popular voice-activated Echo ...

  Bloomberg A withering factory town in Japan’s Rust Belt is looking for revival through a dose of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “robot revolution.” Kadoma’s population has declined 13 percent as the nation ages, prompting mergers among elementary schools and emergency services departments. Factories can’t find enough people to run assembly lines, further threatening an industrial base that includes titan ...

  Emirates Business Over the past decade, the GCC region has witnessed rapid economic development and demographic changes, including the influx of expatriates, which in turn has increased the region’s overall population. This coupled with rise in per capita income has fuelled the demand for residential units in the GCC region, said Al Masah Capital, region’s leading investment firm, in ...

  ABU DHABI / Emirates Business The Middle East and North Africa’s leading shopping mall, retail and leisure pioneer, Majid Al Futtaim, continues its expansion and announced a new AED 300 million project in Abu Dhabi – “My City Centre Masdar”. The new mall will be located in the heart of Masdar City, one of the world’s most sustainable urban ...

  Abu Dhabi / WAM Abu Dhabi is set to play a leading role in coordinating efforts to meet the pressures of feeding 520 million people by 2030, by hosting MENA Food Production 2030, which will take place on March 20 and 21during the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture (GFIA) and will drive a critical dialogue between government, food ...

  DUBAI / WAM Dubai Business Events (DBE) recorded its most successful year to date, winning 129 bids and proposals for upcoming conferences, meetings and incentive trips in partnership with local stakeholders. The number of future business events secured by Dubai Business Events increased by 79% in 2016, compared to 2015, consolidating Dubai’s position as a leading destination for business ...

  Dubai / WAM Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) the financial hub of the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, announced on Tuesday the launch of the region’s first fintech accelerator in Dubai. Set to be operational in the first quarter of 2017, the FinTech Hive at DIFC will introduce cutting-edge financial services technologies to the MEASA markets while ...

  Dubai / WAM Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza), a DP World Company, issued a new set of guidelines for the Jebel Ali Free Zone Companies Implementing Regulations 2016 that enable foreign companies to transfer and continue operations in the free zone without the need to open a branch or establish a new company. For the first time, Jafza has brought ...