NEWS

Airlines are trying to attract more families from the Gulf and the subcontinent to the UAE during the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) with special offers and promotions. Thousands of tourists are keen to visit Dubai to pick up some DSF bargains and see the newly opened Burj Khalifa. The twin attractions are expected to boost visitor numbers by 10 per cent.

The Right Honourable Lord Peter Mandelson, UK’s First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Lord President of the Council, toured At the Top, Burj Khalifa the world’s highest observatory deck with an outdoor terrace on Level 124 of Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. The Rt Hon Lord Mandelson was accompanied on the tour by Mr Abdulla Lahej, Executive Director, Dubai Project Management, Emaar Properties, the developer of Burj Khalifa.

Visitors should again be able to scale the world’s tallest tower from tomorrow when it is due to reopen after a ten-day closure. Burj Khalifa’s 124th floor observation deck has been undergoing mainten-ance after passengers were left trapped when lifts jammed last week. The ticket office of the ‘At the Top’ experience said it was expected to reopen but advised visitors to call ahead to confirm.

The rich heritage and colourful legacy of classic cars is once again on display in Downtown Dubai. The second Downtown Dubai Classic Car Show will be celebrated over four days this year following overwhelming participation from the public and classic car enthusiasts last year.

Andrew Flintoff and his family have set up home in Dubai. Here, he offers a guide to the city and reveals why it's the ideal location for a cricketer. And you should definitely visit the new Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. As it happens I'm scared of heights – when I went up the Empire State Building I nearly passed out – but here I survived a trip up to the observation deck.

Emirates NBD, the largest banking group in the Middle East in terms of assets, announced today the opening of its newest branch at The Residences, a cluster of nine high-rise towers in Downtown Dubai, adjacent to The Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa, the recently inaugurated world’s tallest tower. The second Emirates NBD branch to open this year complements the bank’s existing network of 110 branches and 650 ATMs, the largest such network in the UAE.

Emaar has announced an annual net operating profit of US$633 million (AED 2.324billion). The company highlighted the recent opening of the Burj Khalifa as a high point, along with the opening of its first medical centre and two new hotels.

Burj Khalifia, the world’s tallest tower, will reopen on Feb. 14 following the closure of its 124th- floor observation deck, according to ticket sellers for the Dubai attraction. Ambulances were sent to the tower on Feb. 6 to treat 12 people who had been stranded in a stalled elevator and “dozens” of others who had been trapped on the observation platform, according to Fahad Al Zarouni, deputy director of operations at Dubai’s Center for Ambulance Services. None were hospitalized.

Dubai officials plan to introduce a gold coin – with the face of the UAE President on one side and the Burj Khalifa on the other – as legal tender. If approved, it will be the first of its kind in the Middle East, the Khaleej Times reports on Thursday.

Dubai’s new super-scraper boasts some of the highest interior specs in the industry. David Ingham and Claire Ferris-Lay talk to those responsible for rolling them out. The specification on the Burj Khalifa project is one of the highest that industry veteran, Talal Saeed, managing director of Fino International, has ever encountered. “The specification is one of the highest I’ve ever seen and experienced. There were so many consultants supervising and reporting to each other to make sure everything works perfectly.”