Saudia’s flights to Los Angeles: Families on cloud nine

April 2, 2014

Jeddah, Apr 2: Saudi scholarship students and other passengers are delighted as Saudi Arabian Airlines’ (Saudia) launched direct flights to Los Angeles.

Saudi_Arabian_Airlines“This is very good news,” said Abdelelah Saaty, dean of the College of Business in Rabigh, who is a regular traveler to the US and had obtained his master’s degree from the University of Southern California.

“Before launching this new Saudia flight, people had to fly first to Washington or New York to catch a seven-hour flight to Los Angeles,” Saaty told Arab News.

“Los Angeles is in the heart of California, which is a business center and the new flight will boost commercial relations between the two countries,” he said.

Los Angeles is the second largest US city after New York. More than 80,000 Saudi nationals are currently pursuing their higher studies in American universities and institutes.

Most of them live there with their families.

Abdul Aziz Al-Hazmi, CEO of Saudia, who launched the new flight, emphasized the airline’s plan to expand its operations worldwide.

He was accompanied by Abdullah Al-Ajhar, EVP public relations, and Walid Al-Oloumi, PR adviser.

Los Angeles is Saudia’s third destination in the US after New York and Washington,

Saudia will operate three flights weekly to Los Angeles on Saturdays, Thursdays and Mondays.

Saudia has deployed Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on this route.

The plane has 24 seats in the First Class, 36 in Business Class and 245 in the Economy Class.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

Dubai, Jul 28: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) (ADCB.AD) is letting go hundreds of employees, sources said, the latest in a round of lay-offs by regional banks as pressure mounts to cut costs amid lower oil prices and the coronavirus crisis.

The UAE’s third-biggest lender is laying off 400 employees, two sources familiar with the matter said, after it had committed to not cutting staff because of the crisis.

In a statement, a spokesman said ADCB had pursued efficiency over the last decade by managing out its lowest underachievers after regular reviews, while ensuring talent was deployed in high-growth areas, such as digital banking.

“A certain number of redundancies are therefore expected every year in the normal course of business,” the bank spokesman added.

The sources said the cuts would involve ADCB’s consumer business and several in top management were among those being let go. One source said the bank was looking to close 20 branches.

In March, ADCB had declared, “No employee will be made redundant during 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

UAE banks have been hit by government measures to rein in the spread of the virus, forcing many businesses to shut temporarily.

Last week, Dubai’s largest bank, Emirates NBD, reported a slump of 58% in profits. In June, sources told Reuters the bank started a new round of hundreds of lay-offs.

In May, ADCB reported a fall of 84% in first-quarter net profit as it took impairments of $292 million on debt exposure to troubled hospital operator NMC Health and payments group Finablr.

It was a major lender, with an exposure of about $981 million, to NMC Health, which went into administration this year after months of turmoil following questions over financial reporting.

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News Network
April 18,2020

Dubai, Apr 18: Saudi Arabia has reported 1,132 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of confirmed COVID-19 patients to 8,274, the Ministry of Health revealed on Saturday.

The ministry has also announced five more deaths from the virus, taking to 92 the Kingdom’s death toll.

Recoveries
As for recoveries, 280 new recoveries were reported, pushing the total number of patients recovered to 1,329.

The ministry revealed that 79 per cent of today’s cases are expatriates and that 65 per cent of the cases were detected through intensified and active COVID-19 screening in densely-populated areas.

A total of 201 patients of Saturday’s cases have contracted the disease due to being in contact with existing cases, the ministry added.

The new infected cases have been placed under complete isolation and they are receiving necessary medical care, an official from the ministry said.

He affirmed that medical teams are intensifying efforts and screening tests in workers' neighbourhoods and accommodations in order to limit the spread of the disease.

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News Network
March 21,2020

Mar 21: Qatari authorities arrested 10 nationals for breaking home quarantine rules as Doha tightens regulations amid the coronavirus outbreak, local daily The Peninsula Qatar reported on Saturday.

The Ministry of Public Health released a statement naming the detainees and said that the violators were currently being referred to prosecution.

The tiny country, where expatriates comprise the majority of the population, on Thursday reported eight more infections to take its tally to 470, the highest number among the six Gulf Arab states that have reported a total of more than 1,300 coronavirus cases.

Government spokeswoman Lulwa Rashed Al-Khater told a news conference the new cases included two Qataris who had been in Europe, with the rest migrant workers.

Qatari authorities on Tuesday announced the closure of several square kilometers of the industrial area in Doha, the capital, which also contains labor camps and other housing units.

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