Etihad Airways has achieved another milestone in its record-breaking year of expansion, launching four inaugural routes to Tunis, Hanoi, Chiang Mai, and Hong Kong within just three days.

The new services cement Abu Dhabi’s position as a key global aviation hub, contributing nearly 45 per cent of the UAE’s total aviation growth in 2025.

The airline’s expanding network not only boosts inbound tourism and trade but also adds thousands of new seats to and from Abu Dhabi, creating easier access for travellers from Africa and Asia to experience the emirate’s cultural landmarks, pristine beaches, luxury resorts, and thriving events calendar.

Read more-Air Arabia Abu Dhabi lands in Damascus with new direct route

The additions also give UAE residents and visitors a wider range of travel options across leisure and business destinations in North Africa and Asia, a WAM report said.

New routes from Abu Dhabi:

1. Tunis (November 1, three weekly flights) – Strengthens Etihad’s North African network and caters to growing demand for travel between the UAE and Tunisia.
2. Hanoi (November 2, six weekly flights) – Establishes Abu Dhabi’s first direct link to Vietnam’s capital, reinforcing trade and tourism ties between the two nations.
3. Chiang Mai ( November 3, four weekly flights) – Opens Northern Thailand to travellers from the Middle East and Europe via Abu Dhabi.
4. Hong Kong (November 3, five weekly flights) – Reconnects Abu Dhabi with one of Asia’s leading financial and leisure hubs, coinciding with the relaunch of Etihad’s codeshare with Hong Kong Airlines for enhanced regional connectivity.

Antonoaldo Neves, CEO of Etihad Airways, said, “Each of these destinations adds its own character to our network, from Tunis’s heritage to Hanoi’s vibrancy, Chiang Mai’s charm and Hong Kong’s global energy. Together, they expand options for our guests while bringing more visitors to discover Abu Dhabi, one of the world’s most exciting cities. As we continue to deliver almost half of the UAE’s aviation growth this year, our focus remains on connecting more people, cultures, and opportunities through our home in Abu Dhabi.”

With the addition of these routes, Etihad’s network now spans more than 85 destinations, underscoring its pivotal role in connecting Abu Dhabi to the world and fueling the UAE’s tourism and economic momentum.

Air Arabia strengthens Ras Al Khaimah’s aviation footprint

In another development underscoring the UAE’s aviation surge, Air Arabia has inaugurated its first direct service between Ras Al Khaimah and Kazan, Russia, marking a significant step in the airline’s expansion from its northern emirate hub.

A launch ceremony at Ras Al Khaimah International Airport celebrated the occasion, attended by representatives from both the airline and airport authorities.

Adel Al Ali, group chief executive officer of Air Arabia, said, “The launch of our new service between Ras Al Khaimah and Kazan further strengthens Air Arabia’s presence in the Russian market. This new route underscores our commitment to offering customers affordable and reliable air travel while supporting Ras Al Khaimah’s continued growth as a key hub for tourism and trade.”

Operating weekly, the new service provides direct connectivity between Ras Al Khaimah and Kazan, offering travellers a convenient, low-cost link between the UAE and Russia. The route also adds to Air Arabia’s growing Russian network, which already includes Moscow and Yekaterinburg, enhancing the emirate’s international reach and accessibility.

With this latest addition, Air Arabia continues to position Ras Al Khaimah as a competitive aviation hub that complements the UAE’s wider air transport ecosystem, one led by rapid expansions from major carriers such as Etihad Airways and Emirates.

The twin expansions by Etihad and Air Arabia reflect the UAE’s broader strategy to cement its position as a global aviation powerhouse, connecting key markets across Asia, Africa, and Europe. With record route launches, growing passenger numbers, and rising global demand, the country’s airlines are poised to play a defining role in shaping the next phase of international air travel.

Emerson is intensifying its focus on industrial AI and autonomy as the energy sector races toward digital transformation. At ADIPEC 2025, Liam Hurley, president for the Middle East and Africa at Emerson, outlined how the company’s technology roadmap, regional localisation strategy, and integration of AspenTech are converging to deliver a new era of predictive, data-driven, and sustainable industrial operations.

Emerson has long been synonymous with automation technology, from its Rosemount sensors and Fisher valve portfolio to advanced systems that convert plant-level data into actionable intelligence. But as industrial AI evolves, the company is embedding a deeper layer of predictive analytics and intelligence across the energy value chain.

“Emerson has always been a leader in automation technology,” Hurley explained. “Our focus is on ensuring that we convert data sourced from sensors and valves across the plant into information that helps our customers operate most effectively and efficiently—improving productivity, safety, reliability, and availability.”

Recent R&D investments and the acquisition of AspenTech have allowed Emerson to elevate this capability. “We’ve looked at how we can create increased analytics capability to support top performance and provide more predictive capabilities to our customers as they seek to achieve their energy goals,” Hurley added.

Unlocking synergy through AspenTech integration

Since integrating AspenTech, Emerson has strengthened its position as a software-driven industrial technology company. The collaboration has created new synergies between automation and optimisation—core enablers of autonomous plant operations.

“As we advance our more software-centered approach, we’re providing an enterprise view that leverages AspenTech’s capabilities to support more autonomous applications across full operations,” Hurley said.

This combination of Emerson’s control systems and AspenTech’s analytics portfolio allows energy operators to optimise production, minimise downtime, and accelerate progress toward autonomous-by-design facilities.

As the Middle East accelerates its energy transition, Emerson is helping operators use AI, automation, and analytics to reduce emissions and optimise performance.

“It’s the application of that advanced analytics capability—focusing on areas like emissions monitoring to prevent emissions at the source through our sensing technologies, and then adding advanced analytics to automate carbon capture processes,” Hurley explained.

This approach positions Emerson as a trusted partner for national energy companies and industrial operators navigating the dual challenge of decarbonisation and energy security.

Hurley described cybersecurity as an integral part of Emerson’s digital DNA. “We operate a zero-trust view in terms of how we design our cybersecurity capabilities,” he said. “It’s important for us as we support our customers on their automation journey because often these capabilities are applied in running facilities or greenfield environments.”

Emerson’s framework emphasises security, reliability, and scalability, built on international standards such as IEC 62443. “The important aspect is that it’s secure and reliable, and that we can scale that cybersecurity capability as we scale our solutions,” Hurley noted.

Autonomy on the horizon

Asked about the realism of fully autonomous operations, Hurley acknowledged that the shift is already underway. “Customers are talking to us about autonomous operations—we’re hearing that consistently, particularly in the region,” he said. “Challenges around site distribution, accessibility, climate, and safety are driving a need for more autonomy.”

Emerson is already conducting pilot programmes with regional partners to demonstrate autonomous capabilities across both onshore and offshore facilities. “It’s driving increased efficiency, productivity, and naturally safety and security for our customers,” he said. “I believe there is a real drive to increase autonomy while elevating the capabilities of people and driving increased value from the talent we have here.”

With the Middle East’s energy landscape expanding—from oil and gas to renewables and hydrogen—Emerson’s regional pipeline remains strong. “Our pipeline is healthy,” Hurley confirmed. “We see investments across the region in the energy transition landscape. It’s not an ‘or,’ but an ‘and’—there’s demand across all aspects of energy, which is very exciting for Emerson.”

Localisation remains a central pillar of Emerson’s regional growth. “Our focus on localisation and in-country value is about being close to our customers—developing local talent and executing projects transparently with strong customer involvement,” Hurley said. “Our investments in the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia are about ensuring we have the workforce and infrastructure needed for long-term sustainability.”

Looking ahead, Emerson will continue refining its industrial AI roadmap while advancing automation as the backbone of future-ready energy facilities. “We’ve evolved into a pure-play automation company and will continue to focus on delivering increased value from our existing portfolio, investing in the continued evolution of our software products, sensors, and valve technologies,” Hurley said.

The goal, he explained, is to enable customers to achieve a true enterprise-level view of operations, where contextualised data drives decisions across the entire asset lifecycle. “That’s what will allow them to truly drive efficiency and autonomy in their operations.”

OpenAI has signed a multi-year strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) valued at $38bn to run and scale its advanced artificial intelligence workloads on AWS infrastructure.

Under the agreement, OpenAI will immediately begin using AWS compute capacity, including hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs connected through Amazon EC2 UltraServers, with the ability to scale to tens of millions of CPUs.

All capacity is targeted to be deployed by the end of 2026, with expansion expected into 2027 and beyond.

Highlights of the OpenAI-AWS tieup

The deal will give OpenAI access to AWS’s large-scale AI infrastructure, which includes clusters of more than 500,000 chips.

The setup will support both inference for ChatGPT and the training of next-generation models, with systems designed for low-latency performance and scalable efficiency.

“Scaling frontier AI requires massive, reliable compute,” said OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman. “Our partnership with AWS strengthens the broad compute ecosystem that will power this next era and bring advanced AI to everyone.”

“As OpenAI continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible, AWS’s best-in-class infrastructure will serve as a backbone for their AI ambitions,” AWS CEO Matt Garman said.

The partnership follows earlier collaborations between the two firms. OpenAI’s foundation models are already available on Amazon Bedrock, AWS’s AI service, where they are used by customers such as Bystreet, Comscore, Peloton, Thomson Reuters, Triomics, and Verana Health for applications including coding, data analysis, and scientific research.

AWS said the new infrastructure will use NVIDIA GB200 and GB300 chips to handle OpenAI’s growing compute requirements, reinforcing the company’s position as a preferred provider for large-scale AI workloads.

Read: AWS’ Tanuja Randery on supporting EMEA’s digital transformation and AI ambition

The Middle East has rapidly become a hub of digital transformation, simultaneously embracing cloud adoption, AI integration, and unprecedented business growth.

Against this backdrop, cybersecurity has fundamentally shifted from a mere IT concern to a core boardroom priority, with identity emerging as the new, most critical battleground.

At the recent GITEX GLOBAL, Gulf Business caught up with Roland Daccache, senior manager, sales engineering, Middle East & Africa at CrowdStrike, to discuss the key insights his team gathered at the event, the escalating threat from cloud-native adversaries, and how the company is tailoring its strategy to defend the dynamic, high-growth Middle East market.

CrowdStrike is a regular participant at GITEX GLOBAL. What is the core message you are bringing to the platform this year, and what is your mission in the face of evolving threats?

Our mission at CrowdStrike has never changed: to stop breaches. However, the breach itself has evolved. Every year at GITEX GLOBAL, we are here to showcase new innovations and highlight what businesses need to change to remain secure.

The core message is simple: if the cyber threat is evolving — leveraging identity, AI, and cloud — then we, as defenders, must evolve, too.

Cybersecurity is a major topic now, discussed at the board level alongside financial and legal risks. Based on your global threat report, what key trends are you observing in adversary behaviour?

Our report shows threat adversaries are behaving like sophisticated businesses, complete with operation centres and support centres.

Key metrics reveal:

• 81 per cent of attacks are interactive hands-on keyboard attacks, meaning attackers are abandoning traditional malware for tactics like identity theft and phishing.
• We saw a 136 per cent rise in cloud-native attacks, confirming that adversaries are following businesses as they move to the cloud.
• There was a 442 per cent rise in voice phishing attacks, as attackers change tactics to evade detection from advanced endpoint security (EDR) technologies.

It’s often said that people are the weakest link in security. With all the technology advancements, why does the human element still pose such a challenge, and what is the new frontier you believe needs protection?

It’s true that humans remain a very weak link.

Today, we even have self-sufficient AI agents gaining access to organisations, similar to human users. At CrowdStrike, we strongly believe that identity is the frontier we need to protect.

Our focus is on eliminating standing privileges and implementing just-in-time access, ensuring users run with the least amount of privileges needed for their function. This prevents scenarios like an HR intern being able to download all payroll information.

You mentioned focusing on software as a service (SaaS) security. Why is this area often overlooked by organisations, and how does it relate to identity-based attacks?

Organisations often overlook or ignore the security of their SaaS platforms. Everyone in the organisation often runs with excessive privileges within these tools.

An intruder can then launch a hands-on-keyboard attack directly from a compromised SaaS provider. That’s why we acquired a company called Adaptive Shield to specifically protect these environments and eliminate these overlooked points of entry.

What are the main concerns CISOs in the Middle East are bringing to you today, and how does CrowdStrike address them?

The biggest headache for a CISO is that their protection is a moving target. They know buying a firewall and an antivirus is no longer enough.

We’ve seen three main areas of interest:

1. Identity security is top of the agenda, as they know over 80 per cent of attacks start with a compromised identity.
2. Cloud security, because businesses must adopt hyperscalers and SaaS platforms.
3. Securing the use of AI in the organisation. CISOs are deeply concerned about users forwarding confidential data to tools like ChatGPT or Gemini where they have no control.

Read: CrowdStrike launches unified identity security platform to counter AI-driven threats

How is CrowdStrike helping CISOs secure employee use of generative AI tools?

We recently acquired Pangea, an AI security company, to extend our Falcon platform with an AI detection and response (AIDR) capability.

This move will help empower CISOs to protect their organisations from data leaks to AI tools, whether the leak comes from end-users or from developers building AI-enabled applications.

It provides the necessary guardrails to trust the deployment of these new technologies within a corporate environment.

The Middle East is seeing unprecedented business growth and investment. What does this dynamic market mean for CrowdStrike?

More startups, more mergers and acquisitions across financials, healthcare and industrials — this presents a huge opportunity for adversaries to target the weakest links.

Our role is to help businesses safely enable their main potential.

We have seen an unprecedented demand for our products and services and are fuelling this growth by investing more in our Middle East presence, including technical, sales, and channel roles.

Are the challenges for a CISO in the Middle East the same as in the US or Europe? How do you adapt your technology deployment regionally?

They are different. In the US, the debate is often which cloud or SaaS solution to choose.

In the Middle East, we are still debating whether to move to the cloud or whether to enable AI inside the organisation.

We adapt our approach by prioritising the technology we deploy according to the organisation’s current business needs and the regional nuances.

Finally, the skill gap in cybersecurity is a global concern. How can this gap be bridged, and what role does AI play in addressing the talent shortage?

I’m positive about the significant investment being made in the UAE and Saudi markets to develop young talent. The way forward is to train our young generations at an early age — a 15-year-old should be equipped to use AI tools safely and responsibly.

On the flip side, AI and automation investments by players like CrowdStrike are reducing the need for thousands of unfilled jobs.

The analysis of a security incident can now be almost fully automated. I see less need for general human operators, but more need for advanced talent — the “human orchestrators” — because the human instinct and guardrails will never be replaced.

Accor, a global leader in hospitality, has announced the signing of Sofitel Jabal Omar Makkah, a landmark luxury hotel that will be the largest Sofitel property in the world. The new flagship, developed in partnership with Jabal Omar Development Company (JODC), will open in 2026 and mark a major milestone in the Kingdom’s growing luxury tourism sector.

Located within Jabal Omar master development, just steps away from the Holy Mosque, Sofitel Jabal Omar Makkah will feature 1,141 rooms and suites across two towers — Sofitel Jabal Omar Makkah North and Sofitel Jabal Omar Makkah South — offering panoramic views of the Haram and Makkah’s skyline.

Maud Bailly, CEO Sofitel Legend, Sofitel, MGallery & Emblems, said: “We are honored to introduce Sofitel in Makkah, a city that holds immense spiritual and cultural importance. Sofitel Jabal Omar Makkah will stand as a symbol of hospitality, serenity, and connection — a place where our French zest meets Saudi authenticity. This extraordinary project reflects our ambition to create meaningful cultural bridges through luxury hospitality in one of the world’s most sacred destinations.”

Blending French art de vivre with Saudi heritage, the hotel will feature six distinctive dining venues, including elegant all-day dining restaurants, a signature fine-dining concept merging French and Middle Eastern flavors, and intimate lounges designed for reflection and gathering. Guests will also have access to a Club Millésime executive lounge, fitness centers, and exclusive wellness experiences inspired by local traditions and crafted by Saudi artisans.

The project underscores Accor’s partnership with Jabal Omar Development Company, one of the Middle East’s largest publicly listed real estate firms and a key driver of Makkah’s urban transformation. JODC’s masterplan integrates hospitality, retail, and residential offerings to support the city’s spiritual and economic growth.

Jean-Baptiste Recher, chief development officer luxury brands Middle East, Africa and Turkiye, said: “Sofitel Jabal Omar Makkah is a landmark achievement for Accor in the Middle East luxury sector. The hotel exemplifies our commitment to creating world-class properties that harmonize local heritage with French luxury, offering guests an unparalleled experience at the heart of Makkah.”

Xavier Grange, chief development officer, Sofitel, Sofitel Legend, MGallery & Emblems, added: “The Jabal Omar development represents a cornerstone of Makkah’s urban transformation, reinforcing Accor’s leadership in the Kingdom’s luxury segment, and supporting Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. The signing of the world’s largest Sofitel in Makkah reflects our ambition to grow the brand’s presence through landmark projects in key strategic markets, bringing the spirit of French luxury hospitality to a global stage. Sofitel’s proven expertise in operating large-scale hotels ensures we deliver exceptional guest experiences at any scale.”

With its scale, design, and proximity to the Holy Mosque, Sofitel Jabal Omar Makkah reinforces Accor’s long-term commitment to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 — advancing the Kingdom’s position as a leading global tourism destination while celebrating cultural connection through luxury hospitality.