Latest news with #EmiratesA380
What's On
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- What's On
Check out these Guinness World Records achieved in Dubai
Tallest building, deepest pool, biggest picture frame…Dubai doesn't do anything by halves. From massive attractions to quirky records, here are some of the coolest Guinness World Records the city proudly holds. Click through the gallery 3 of 12 The world's longest cantilevered building structure 100m high, this dramatic skybridge stretches 230m between two towers, with 67.3m extending outward into the open air. The world's deepest indoor pool Clocking in at a jaw dropping 60m and holding a whopping 14 million liters of water, this epic underwater attraction isn't just a pool, it's a full on adventure. playground for divers. Think sunken city vibes, underwater arcade rooms, and record breaking depths The world's largest and tallest observation wheel Anchored on Bluewaters Island, this record breaking wheel towers 250m into the sky, nearly twice the height of the London Eye. The world's tallest hotel Soaring 356m across 75 stories and home to 528 rooms, find this gleaming golden tower along Sheikh Zayed Road. The world's largest picture frame Located in Zabeel Park, this iconic structure stands 150 metres tall and 95 metres wide, perfectly framing views of Old Dubai to the north and New Dubai to the south. Visitors can walk across the glass floored Sky Deck too. The world's tallest building Standing at a staggering 828 metres, the Burj Khalifa holds multiple world records, including the tallest freestanding structure, the highest number of stories, the highest outdoor observation deck (at the top on level 148), and even the world's highest restaurant and lounge ( on level 133) It's the ultimate bucket list icon towering over Dubai’s skyline. The world's longest flower display. A life sized Emirates A380 covered in over 500,000 flowers and plants. Other record holders include an 18 metre Mickey Mouse floral topiary, the tallest of its kind, and a 1 km long flower wall, creating a dreamy, petal packed stroll through the garden. The world's highest infinity pool. Perched atop Palm Tower, this luxe sky pool offers 360 panoramic views of Dubai, from the iconic Palm Jumeirah to the majestic Burj Khalifa and glistening Arabian Gulf. The largest indoor mall aquarium. Located inside Dubai Mall, this aquatic wonder holds 10 million liters of water and you can walk through a 48 meter tunnel or book experiences like cage snorkelling and shark dives. Want to dine above the clouds? Here's your guide to the 16 highest restaurants in Dubai. Don't miss a thing , follow What's On on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok for the latest news, events and everything in between… Images: Unsplash and Website > Sign up for FREE to get exclusive updates that you are interested in
Hindustan Times
07-06-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Unnoticed, UAE may have curated workable concept for AI regulation
On a recent trip (no secret, to attend the keynote and briefings at Google I/O a few weeks ago), my ears caught the sound of a rather interesting podcast aboard an Emirates A380. Usually these tend to be about food or lifestyle — though the one with Kilian Hennessy is exceptional too — but to have one in which United Arab Emirates' Minister of State for AI, Omar Al Olama talks about his vision of artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, is quite extraordinary. Also because he is the world's first minister for all things AI, appointed in October 2017. His vision is a bit different from everything I've heard from regulators in many countries, including India. Instead of regulation being structured as a restriction, Al Olama's approach lies in a philosophy that hopes to balance innovation with responsibility. Rather than rushing to implement what may prove to be restrictive regulations, since its still early days considering the contours of the AI space evolve almost every other day, the UAE has positioned itself as what Al Olama calls 'a responsible AI nation.' There are five key tenets to UAE's approach to AI, a working blueprint that many other countries could do well to look closely at. First, the UAE aims to become a global leader in AI by 2031. Secondly, there is belief that AI will be a 'new lifeblood' for both governments and the private sector, transforming various industries. Third, the country envisions a future where individuals have multiple digital assistants, potentially reaching PhD-level capabilities. Fourth, UAE is actively seeking international partnerships and investments to strengthen its position as a global technology hub. And lastly, there is a willingness to play a key role in the framing of internationally applicable rules to ensure AI security and safety, as well as build frameworks for protection of personal data and privacy. The fact is simple, Al Olama knows what he is talking about. As far back as in 2019, during a keynote speech at Orchestrating Winning Performance in Dubai, he noted, 'Everyone is talking about AI. Whoever is going to lead in the Artificial Intelligence race will lead the future. This technology will change the world.' Fast forward to 2025, and we have AI which undoubtedly is part of many a workflow for businesses and enterprises, and individuals are learning to trust AI tools more slowly but steadily (whether being careful enough is a debate for another day). In the past few years, UAE has silently gone about meaning business. But there is a demographic change that needs to happen, sooner rather than later, if the country has to achieve its mission. According to the latest UNESCO data, 0.19% of the UAE's population are working as full time researchers in science, technology, and innovation. In contrast, Korea, which leads this metric, clocks in with 0.69%, followed by Singapore (0.66%) and Norway (0.59%). The US finds 0.42% of its population in these roles, while India clocks in with 0.02% (important to note — this percentage is looking worse than it may be, owing to a much higher comparative baseline population number). A few days ago, the UAE released a new Arabic-language AI model, called Falcon Arabic, in an effort to make AI locally relevant and accessible. This is something experts too have talked about. India is working on its own LLM, or large language model. As is Singapore. These are just some examples, in the search of an AI that understands local context and sensitivities more than a global model perhaps might. Falcon Arabic has been trained on a dataset spanning Modern Standard Arabic and regional dialects, and Abu Dhabi's Technology Innovation Institute (TII) claims this model matches the performance of models up to 10 times its size. This model may still find it difficult to match up to the likes of Google Gemini, China's DeepSeek and OpenAI as well as Anthropic's fast evolving GPT and Claude models respectively, but it is a start nonetheless. There is an understanding that isolation, and go-it-alone doesn't work. OpenAI and the UAE are working together for something called the Stargate UAE, a 1-gigawatt AI supercomputing cluster in Abu Dhabi, as part of the AI company's 'OpenAI for Countries' initiative. American tech companies like Oracle, Nvidia, Cisco, and SoftBank, as well as G42, an Emirati artificial intelligence firm, are all part of various AI projects. But it's likely you may have seen excitable headlines about all UAE residents being given free subscriptions to ChatGPT Plus — because that gets the citizens involved. The US sees this as an opportunity too. Tech companies in the US, presently develop the world's most advanced semiconductor chips. The other side of that coin has the UAE that can offer abundant, low-cost energy that is needed to power enormous AI data centres. Back to the regulation approach for a moment. The European Union has pursued comprehensive legislation through the AI Act, which categorises AI systems by risk levels and imposes strict requirements on high-risk applications. They have the GDPR as an example that their regulation methods are thorough, as it is the case here too. But then again, it can also be overly complex for tech companies to navigate, and could stifle innovation particularly for companies with limited resources. The United States has thus far taken a more fragmented approach, with a lack of comprehensive federal legislation, but that could change once the Trump administration gets down to regulating AI. India currently doesn't have rules that regulate AI just yet, but the country is in the process of formulating and implementing policy frameworks to govern various aspects of AI. The blueprint is there for other countries to look closely at, but the UAE has an advantage of geographical size, its political structure and economic positioning that may be difficult for larger countries to work with — getting a consensus may not be as easy there, as would geographic, economic and human limitations that may come into play. But AI regulation is around the bend, just that we may have differing approaches for the time being. (Vishal Mathur is the Technology Editor for HT. Tech Tonic is a weekly column that looks at the impact of personal technology on the way we live, and vice-versa. The views expressed are personal.)
Time Out Dubai
22-05-2025
- Business
- Time Out Dubai
Emirates announces 46 extra flights for Hajj and Eid Al Adha season
Dubai's biggest airline has announced that it will be adding a whopping 46 extra flights during the upcoming busy travel period. Emirates will be ramping up its operations across the next three weeks as travellers in Dubai prepare for the upcoming Eid Al Adha break and Hajj pilgrimage. The DXB-based airline will, firstly, add 33 special flights to Jeddah and Medina until Saturday May 31 and between Tuesday June 10 and Monday June 16. These extra flights will support the thousands of pilgrims travelling for their once-in-a-lifetime journey to the city of Mecca. Please note that these flights will only be available to pilgrims with a valid Hajj visa. Emirates will also operate 13 additional flights across the GCC during the upcoming Eid Al Adha period to support all travellers with their plans. The break is currently predicted to give Dubai residents a four-day long weekend starting on Thursday June 5, but this will be confirmed towards the end of May. Emirates flights during Eid Al Adha The extra Emirates flights during the UAE public holiday will travel to and from the likes of Amman in Jordan, Dammam in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. These flights are designed to help travellers get to summer leisure destinations or to visit family during the holiday. Flights to select destinations across the GCC, Africa, South Asia, Far East, Europe and Africa will offer a special Eid Al Adha menu. Passengers will get traditional dishes like lamb madfoon and chicken zurbian in first, business and premium economy class. Those travelling in these classes will also get a pistachio and chocolate nammoura cake as well as white chocolate and rahash mousse cake. In economy class, you'll get a pistachio cake and coffee cake. Customers in all classes will be treated to desserts wrapped in unique, celebratory boxes which will include cake rangeena, pistachio rehash cake and date mamoul cookies. First and business class passengers flying from Jeddah will get the choice between dishes such as lamb mathlouta, lamb saleeg, hanaini and cheese kunafa in the airline's dedicated lounge. And any passengers flying in first and business class on the new-look Emirates A380 will be able to choose from a selection of Emirati desserts and get unlimited Arabic coffee in the onboard lounge. Emirates flights during Hajj Emirates will provide Hajj kits for travellers making the pilgrimage (Credit: Emirates) Emirates will be transporting nearly 32,000 Hajj passengers over the next three weeks from key points in its network, like the USA, Pakistan, Indonesia, South Africa, Thailand and the Ivory Coast. Pilgrims travelling with Emirates will receive distinctive Hajj luggage tags alongside a newly introduced Hajj kit. The kit will feature a prayer mat, tasbih beads, silicon water bottles and cushioned non-slip socks. Flights laid on especially for Hajj pilgrims will be customised. Pilgrims on the special service can expect ablution-friendly amenities, unperfumed towels, special announcements marking Al Miqat zones and dedicated Hajj content on the in-flight entertainment system. Passengers returning from Jeddah and Medina can also check in up to five litres of zamzam, which can then be placed in the aircraft's designated cargo area. Jetting off soon? Travelling for Eid Al Adha? This is the best day to find a cheap flight deal An expert reveals all New Emirates flights from Dubai for 2025 Will you be jetting off soon? New flydubai flights from Dubai for 2025 Your holiday plans sorted
Telegraph
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
My day at Heathrow with Britain's planespotting king
It cost $490 million (£366m), has flown 500 people thousands of miles, made possible by massive computing power, orbiting satellites, and impeccable piloting skills guiding it through the world's busiest airspace to land with pinpoint accuracy on a Heathrow Airport runway. 'Go on, my son… easy… easy… woooaaah… bosh! Nice one.' This isn't the guidance of air traffic control, but the commentary of Jerry Dyer as 390 tons of Emirates Airbus A380 kiss the runway and graceful glide becomes dramatic flurry of tyre smoke, air brakes, stabiliser and rudder movements, then the deep howl-and-whistle of reverse engine thrust to slow the behemoth. Dyer is planespotting royalty, the man behind Big Jet TV, the YouTube channel blasted to the fore during Storm Eunice in February 2022 and Storm Gerrit in December 2023. His commentary and footage hit mainstream news as he charted the heroics and skills of pilots wrestling their airliners to the ground through the gales at Heathrow. Three years later, his channel is approaching 500,000 subscribers, a global community of highly engaged aviation nuts, from hobbyists to pilots. We met at his home on a leafy avenue near the airport. The ground floor is filled with flight simulators, a broadcasting studio – the backdrop of which is a scale model airport called 'Staines International' – and shelves of aviation memorabilia. Twenty minutes later, I'm with him on the roof-mounted gantry of his Big Jet TV Transit van in a field alongside Heathrow. Headphones donned, Jerry is panning and zooming, chatting live to aviation fans globally as a showcase of airliners whoosh overhead. A flight lands every 55 seconds or so; 10 seconds after they pass, a howling vortex of wind arrives in their wake. You either get aircraft, or you don't. If you do, they're awesome, emotional, jaw-dropping feats of engineering. If you don't, they're simply metal tubes delivering you to Majorca, or a meeting in Frankfurt. To Dyer, they're everything. Unless he's golfing. Pre-Eunice's climatic tantrum, the Big Jet TV community was smaller and ring-fenced. But by storm end, Dyer was a near-household name. Reports disclosed that captivated viewers as varied as Chelsea footballers and the Call of Duty game design team had been ordered to stop watching the channel and get back to what they should be doing. Dyer, 61, single, has always been interested in aircraft. His dad, Capt Robin Dyer, was a pilot. As a kid, Jerry went to air shows. While work got in the way – variously City trading, setting up mountain-biking and then motorcycling magazines, and an interior shutters business – he produced aviation-themed videos, posted on YouTube, and interest, well, took off. In 2016, he went full time, generating enough from the videos, online chat shows, subscriptions and merchandise to make a living, the subject matter taking him all over the world to film. But Big Jet TV, he says, is not about making money. His engagement with the subject and members is testament to that. Key to the organisation around Big Jet TV, its shows and social media, is Gilly Prestwood, the director of operations. Working with him for several years, she was a member of Big Jet TV who morphed into the organisational role as its only employee. Dyer says: 'She solves problems, runs the store, gets up at 5am if we've got a big show on. I couldn't operate without her. Running Big Jet TV is hard work.' He adds: 'We've an eclectic membership, from five-year-olds to grown-ups who love to just watch planes, and teenagers who want to become aircrew or engineers, technicians. One guy started watching the channel with no intention of becoming a pilot. But he's since qualified and flies for an American airline. 'Looking at all its aspects, aviation is an amazing subject. Old aircraft technology is just as amazing as new aircraft tech – back in the very early days with the Boeing 707, and prior to that with BOAC (now British Airways) and their Viscounts and then the Comet.' He pauses as a British Airways A350 whooshes low overhead. 'The technology is fascinating, the way everything has evolved so amazingly over a short space of time.' I ask whether there are ever any disagreements among members. He says: 'There's people who are in this just to collect (airplane) registration numbers, [and] people who are like, 'Oh, I don't like the A380. I think it's horrible.' Man, it's a plane. Appreciate it because of its size and that Airbus took that risk. 'We don't get into proper spats, but there are definitely people who, like me, are traditionalists, who love old aircraft when they were 'real aeroplanes'. Some of the older generation would say, 'When aircraft were real aircraft, when they were built tough.' I'm an all-over 'aviationist', though: old and modern. 'When we're chatting during the shows, people still say when I've just filmed an A380 taking off, 'It amazes me how that thing gets in the air.' Well, it gets in the air exactly the same way as any aircraft does. It just needs more engines and bigger wings. Aerodynamics to me is an amazing thing, and how that's evolved, and efficiency improved.' As Big Jet TV has almost half a million subscribers, I suggest to Dyer that he has made geeky planespotting cool. 'People say it's the extremeness of an A380 or a 747 landing heavy in strong cross-winds, especially when you see an aircraft being put through its paces, more so the flight crew,' he says. 'I'll have a 'wow' moment at least once a show, whether it's a modern jet's tricky cross-wind landing or a 90-year-old Douglas DC-3 taking off. We're filming right now where we filmed Storm Eunice, 268,000 people watching live. On an average show I'll get 6,000 live viewers, up to 100,000 views post-live.' He has six filming locations around Heathrow, and is hugely grateful to the airport authorities and local businesses, with whom he's established relationships allowing him close and exclusive access for filming. Dyer's favourite aircraft? 'The [Boeing 787] Dreamliner. There's no wing like the Dreamliner's. An Airbus A350 wing is amazing when you're looking out on it as it rotates (takes off) and the wing flexes up like 11ft. But the Dreamliner wing is phenomenal, its flex way beyond anything else.' One whooshes overhead; like with most big jets it's a soft noise, but loud. 'Isn't it beautiful? The wing is plastic. Insane. The ailerons flapping around on the outside, the flaperons in the middle. Just levelling everything up, all computer-controlled. Long flare (when the aircraft nose rises before touchdown), bit of thermal heat from the ground,' he says. It's then that you appreciate it's not just same-y back-to-back landings every 55 seconds or so; each touchdown is different, influenced by all manner of human control inputs and ever-differing climatic influences. It's strangely compelling. And if Dyer weren't doing Big Jet TV? 'I'd like to run an airline,' he said. Bosh. How to spot aircraft at Heathrow Many UK and foreign airports provide and maintain viewing areas for aviation fans. Where to make camp can depend upon wind direction and airport operations, so be prepared to head to one spot, then find you have to move to another. Better still, seek out the planespotting communities, often via Big Jet TV, to get tips ahead of your trip on where and when is best. At Heathrow, Dyer recommends nearby Myrtle Avenue, a popular spotting spot for 'LHR', but because of the airport's location and surroundings other spots are mainly in hotel grounds: the Renaissance, Courtyard and Thistle all neighbour the runways, but you need to be a patron. European airports such as Brussels, Frankfurt, Schiphol and Zurich have dedicated spotting areas, and lend themselves to day trips for enthusiasts. Such hub airports can mean a daily feast of flights coming and going, so take a folding chair, packed lunch and spare camera and phone batteries or power banks.
What's On
13-04-2025
- Business
- What's On
Emirates adds two destinations with retrofitted A380 planes
The Emirates A380 latest cabins include Premium Economy… 3 of 12 Emirates will be introducing its newest retrofitted Airbus A380 planes, fitted with its latest cabins, including Premium Economy, to Manchester and Milan starting this summer. The latest retrofitted planes will operate on EK017/018 to Manchester from June 6, and on EK091/092 to Milan from 1 July. With the introduction of the retrofitted A380 to Manchester, Premium Economy offering will be extended to nearly 5,000 weekly seats in and out of the destination. The enhanced service to Manchester complements the four daily retrofitted A380s currently serving the Dubai-London Heathrow route, the Emirates A350 operating to Edinburgh, and the soon-to-launch refurbished Boeing 777 scheduled to serve London Stansted from May. Milan will become Emirates' second Italian gateway to offer the airline's latest cabins and Premium Economy seats following the planned deployment of the airline's A350 to Bologna later in June. These additions will expand Emirates' retrofitted A380 destinations to 19 places. Other flights include Sydney, Singapore, Osaka, Mumbai, Bangalore, and more. On a four-class Emirates A380, the Premium Economy cabin is located at the front of the main deck with 56 seats laid out in a 2-4-2 configuration. Each seat offers more space for working and relaxing, as well as customised features like in-seat charging points and a side cocktail table. The onboard experience is rounded off with selected in-flight amenities, a specially curated menu, and extensive beverage options. Emirates recently rolled out its upgraded Boeing 777s to eight more destinations too, with a revamped aircraft entering service every three weeks. By September 2025, the airline plans to have 44 cities covered with its new fleet, featuring new interiors and Premium Economy. *books flights* > Sign up for FREE to get exclusive updates that you are interested in
