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Shamsa Entertainment City opens in Aljada with family fun until September

Shamsa Entertainment City has opened its doors in Aljada, and it gives families a fresh reason to head out this summer. The

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DXB launched new Smart Gates service
  • Dubai Airports

Dubai Airports launched a new Smart Gates service on Friday, letting travellers run a Smart Gates eligibility check before they reach passport control. Dubai Airports developed the tool with the General Directorate of Identity and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai. The operator calls it the Smart Gates Eligibility Pre-Check. Passengers reach it through the Pocket Flights app or by scanning QR codes placed across every terminal and gate.

A traveller scans a passport and gets an answer in seconds. Those who clear it can head straight for the automated lanes. Anyone who does not can plan for a staffed counter instead. Dubai Airports said the point of the change is “making the journey through the airport more seamless for our guests.”

GDRFA runs the gates themselves. Dubai International Airport biometric gates read facial and passport data at the barrier, so there is no stamp and no officer check. Eligible groups include UAE and GCC citizens, UAE residents, and visa-on-arrival guests with biometric passports. Many travellers are enrolled the first time they pass through immigration at DXB, which means some queue at the counters without knowing they already qualify. Anyone wanting a second confirmation can use the GDRFA Dubai smart gate registration inquiry on the directorate website, entering an Emirates ID, a file number, or a passport number with nationality.

Why Dubai Airports launched new Smart Gates services

Record volume explains why DXB launched new Smart Gates service now. Dubai International handled 95.2 million passengers in 2025, up 3.1 percent year on year, the highest annual international traffic recorded at any airport. The operator forecasts 99.5 million for 2026. By the end of last year, the airport connected to 291 destinations across 110 countries, served by 108 international airlines.

DXB passport control has held up so far. In 2025, 99.35 percent of departing passengers cleared it in under ten minutes, and 98.8 percent of arriving passengers were processed within 15 minutes. Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports, said in February that record traffic had become part of the airport’s operating reality rather than an exception.

What the pre-check is meant to solve

Passport control is one of the parts of an airport that cannot be widened quickly. Halls are fixed, gate counts are fixed, and staffing has limits. So the operator is working on how passengers sort themselves before they arrive at the hall. A traveller who knows the answer in advance picks the right lane the first time. Across close to 100 million journeys a year, small gains of that kind carry weight.

Capacity beyond DXB

The larger answer sits at Al Maktoum International, where Dubai is building a terminal project valued at about 35 billion dollars. First-phase capacity is expected by 2032, at 150 million passengers a year. Full build-out would take the site to 260 million. Until that capacity arrives, DXB has to find room inside the space it already uses.

DXB launched a new Smart Gates service as part of that pattern. The operator has spent recent years moving checks earlier in the journey and cutting the number of decisions a passenger makes inside the terminal. DXB launched the new Smart Gates service without changing the gates, the enrolment rules, or the biometric system behind them. It changed what the traveller knows before walking up to them.

Adnan Al-Jaziri covers the Gulf economy for ICN.live, with nearly a decade of reporting on finance and economic transformation across the region.

  • 3 min read
Adani Group eyes a new airline
  • Aviation

Adani Group eyes a new airline in India, and the plan could change what you pay for a domestic ticket. Two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters the ports-to-cement conglomerate is studying an entry into flying. Nothing is settled. The group runs eight airports, carries an $11 billion expansion plan, and had said earlier it wanted no part of running a carrier.

That reversal did not come from nowhere. India’s government has quietly encouraged business groups, Adani included, to look at starting an airline. Two failures drove the nudge. Air India has faced heavy safety scrutiny since last year’s Dreamliner crash that killed 260 people. IndiGo cancelled thousands of flights in December after running short of pilots, stranding passengers and forcing officials to act on a sharp rise in fares.

What an Adani airline launch would mean for fares

For passengers, the question is simple. A third large carrier gives you somewhere to go when one airline breaks down. Right now the exit is narrow. IndiGo holds 65.4 per cent of domestic traffic and Air India about 25 per cent. Regulator data for June 2026 put IndiGo’s share at a record 66.3 per cent, while the Air India group slipped to 23.9 per cent. That IndiGo market share number is the whole argument for a new entrant. An Indian aviation duopoly leaves ticket prices exposed every time one operator stumbles.

Why Adani Group eyes a new airline now

One source framed the thinking as duty rather than profit, saying the group wants to weigh it “in national interest” despite the difficulty of the business. The second source said buying a stake in an existing airline is also under review, with all options open.

A rule stands in the way. Adani has approached the government seeking to dilute a clause that restricts certain airport operators from holding stakes in scheduled airlines, the Economic Times reported. The clause dates to the 2006 privatisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports and bars their operators from holding more than 10 per cent of a scheduled carrier. The civil aviation ministry has sought the Solicitor General’s opinion on whether the clause can be amended retrospectively, and any change would need cabinet approval. Adani holds 74 per cent of Mumbai International Airport.

Adani Airports built the ground floor first

Jeet Adani, a director at Adani Airports, told Reuters in December the group had no appetite for flying. Margins were thin, and the group lacked the “mindset” for it. Its strength, he said, lay in building “hard assets on the ground” and running them efficiently. Spending on that side has not slowed. Adani Airports said last month it would put more than $2 billion into airport-linked commercial districts across six locations, covering hotels, retail centres and office space.

The risk sitting inside the Indian aviation market

Money has been hard to keep in Indian skies. High taxes, fierce competition and supply-chain problems pushed Kingfisher, Jet Airways and Go First into bankruptcy over the last 15 years. SpiceJet is still working through financial strain. Adani is Asia’s second-richest person, with a net worth of around $89 billion, so funding is not the obstacle. History says funding alone has never been enough.

Rival carriers have a separate worry. Independent aviation analyst Brendan Sobie said airports owning airlines exist in markets such as Kyrgyzstan, Thailand and Vietnam, but a government allowing the operator of a major airport like Mumbai to hold an airline stake would be surprising. Other Indian airlines, he said, would “rightfully be concerned about a possible conflict of interest.”

Adani and the civil aviation ministry did not immediately respond to queries from Reuters. For now, any move depends on a rule change that has not happened.

  • 4 min read
Syria tourism growth
  • GCC

Syria tourism growth picked up sharply in the first half of 2026, and behind the figures are people choosing to come back. Arab visitors to Syria doubled between January and June, reaching 664,000 from 320,000 a year earlier, the tourism ministry said. Jordan sent the most travelers. Lebanon and Iraq followed close behind. Arrivals from Gulf countries kept rising too, though the ministry gave no separate count for them.

Foreign arrivals climb off a low base

Syria’s foreign tourist arrivals grew even faster. International visitors reached 719,000, up from 131,000 during the same months in 2025. Turkey led the source markets. Germany, Sweden, the United States, the Netherlands, Canada and the United Kingdom came next, a spread that reaches far past Syria’s neighbors. These Syria visitor arrivals 2026 now stretch across Europe and North America, a change from the years when few outsiders came at all. Newer government data adds weight to the trend. Counting Syrian expatriates as well, total visitors hit 3.52 million in the first half, up 111 percent on last year. Expatriate trips alone came to 2.13 million, and the ministry calls that group key to rebuilding trust in the country abroad.

What Syria tourism growth means on the ground

Numbers like these describe more than a spreadsheet. Each arrival is a hotel shift filled, a fare paid, a restaurant table turned. For many people working in tourism, Syria tourism growth shows up as more work after long uncertainty. Mazen Al-Salhani, the tourism minister, has called tourism a driver of jobs across transport, hospitality and small businesses. He said the sector is entering a new phase, supported by rising demand from regional and international markets. Under a five-year plan, the ministry wants tourism to lift its share of the economy and add tens of thousands of jobs by the end of the decade. In coastal Tartus, officials opened the summer season this year with an eye on Mediterranean visitors. The rising movement of people, the ministry said, shows the need to expand hotel capacity and improve services.

Investment follows the visitors

Syria tourism investment has started to track the arrivals. Al-Salhani said last September the country signed investment contracts worth $1.5 billion to revive the sector. That deal came a month after the government agreed $14 billion in infrastructure, transport and real estate. He said renewed interest in Syria as a destination is opening fresh chances for investors in hotels, hospitality and services. The Syria tourism sector still carries the weight of long war years, and rebuilding hotels and heritage sites will take time and money.

A wider economic reset

The tourism push sits inside a larger reset. Neil Quilliam, a fellow in the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House, wrote for AGBI that Syria is beginning to draw investment across several sectors, which could position it as a new growth zone in the regional economy. President Ahmed Al-Sharaa has set the 2026 budget at $10.5 billion, close to triple last year’s level. Whether Syria tourism growth holds through the second half of the year could depend on air links, hotel supply and the pace of new projects. For now, the people arriving are the clearest sign of change. Each doubled figure is a person who decided the time was right to return.

  • 3 min read
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