Last Tuesday, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah received annual rainfall in one day. Dubai International Airport (DXB) has been practically paralyzed for several days and is still recovering.
The UAE was not ready for such a cataclysm. Streets and metro stations were instantly flooded. Public transport and taxis have stopped. Of the airports, the largest, most innovative, in short, the most air harbor of the Emirates, Dubai International Airport, turned out to be the most unprotected from the rampant elements. Another Dubai airport, Al Maktoum (DWC), although it worked intermittently, but avoided collapse. In DXB, ground services were not ready for the crisis – there has never been such a mess in DXB terminals. The cherry on the cake is the airport operator, the national carrier Emirates Airline, which also positions itself as the most–the most.
The level of chaos at Dubai airport is well characterized by the hitherto unprecedented request from the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation to the Russian Consulate General in Dubai to help independent travelers (when was the last time they were even remembered?) from Russia who are stuck at the airport, as they complain on social networks and the media that they do not receive water and hot meals. Organized tourists also had complaints about the organization of assistance, but much less.
Emirates managed to rectify the situation (both at the airport and on flights) only by the end of the week. On Thursday, the chief operating officer of the air harbor, Majed al-Joker, promised to fix everything within 24 hours, but on Friday, passengers of Emirates flights EC129 and EC131 staged a rally, clapping their hands and chanting “Home!” as the third day of waiting for departure to Moscow began.
On Saturday, the Emirates press center released an open letter from its president Tim Clark, which, in particular, says: “We know that our reaction was far from perfect. We recognize and understand the frustration of our customers due to congestion, lack of information and confusion in terminals. We recognize that the long queues and waiting times were unacceptable. It will take us a few more days to eliminate queues of overbooked passengers and luggage, and we ask our customers to be patient and understanding.”
The Crown Prince of the Emirate of Dubai, Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, instructed the government to develop a comprehensive emergency response plan for sudden natural disasters.
Airport News
On April 13, there was good flight weather at Ivanovo airport, but a message appeared on the website about the cancellation of all flights for an indefinite period. It turned out that the airport did not update the certificate of conformity on time, although, according to the Federal Air Transport Agency, they “repeatedly reminded the management of the Center Avia company (airport operator. – Note “AN”) on the need to certify the airfield and eliminate the identified comments.”
According to the CEO of Ivanovo airport Nikolay Subbotin, they did not ignore anyone, but they did not calculate a little: “The comments that were revealed in November 2023 during the initial renewal of the certificate could not be eliminated during the winter period, we were given additional time. As soon as the weather conditions allowed, the necessary work was completed, and in March we started organizing a repeat inspection procedure for the airport.” As a result, 5 days later, on April 18, flights from Ivanovo to 5 Russian cities resumed. The airport has been certified by the Federal Air Transport Agency.
In almost every issue in the Airport News section, we talk about how domestic air harbors are being reconstructed and new modern terminals are being put into operation. But the scale of the work is still huge. So the acting Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Irkutsk, Sun Chuanjiang, suggests the front of work, comparing the international terminal of Irkutsk airport with a bus station in a Chinese province: “It looks like our county bus stations,” the diplomat said during a round table on tourism. He noted that Chinese tourists have an interest in traveling to the Angara region, but such moments as a very unassuming airport restrain the tourist flow. It should be noted that talks about a new airport for Irkutsk have been going on for a long time, but there are no clear prospects yet.
The Skytrax research company has published the World Airport Awards 2024, a ranking of the world’s best airports compiled annually based on passenger reviews from 100 countries. Let’s just say that Dubai Airport is in 7th place in it, and in 2023 it was in 17th place. I wonder how much DXB will drop in the 2025 ranking? Well, the first place is at Hamad International Airport in Doha. Further down: Changi (Singapore), Incheon (Seoul), Haneda and Narita (both Tokyo), Paris – Charles de Gaulle Airport, Franz Josef Strauss Airport in Munich, Zurich Airport and Istanbul Airport (new). Russian airports were not included in the Skytrax rating again. In March 2022, the company announced the suspension of the process of evaluating and analyzing the quality of services at the country’s airports.
Visa News
VFS Global Visa Application Centers (VC) in Russia have extended technical work. The problems continue for the third week. Hungary, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Croatia have not only stopped applying for visas throughout Russia, but also do not accept applicants for previously made application entries. It is assumed that the situation in all these ECS will not improve by the end of the month. In the circles of visa specialists, the opinion is spreading that VFS Global is preparing some kind of technical innovation when applying or recording. As a working option, they are discussing the mandatory video verification of users who wish to sign up for a Polish visa, which has already been launched by VFS Global in Belarus.
A claim for 2.2 million rubles was filed against the passport department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the border guard service of the Krasnoyarsk airport by a family who, due to an error in the child’s passport, miraculously escaped Thai prison. When applying for a document for the two-year-old son of Krasnoyarsk residents, there was a technical malfunction, and the biometric code was not fully registered. The border guards in Phuket discovered the mistake and believed that the Siberians decided to kidnap someone else’s child. They were not allowed to Thailand, but the family took the boy for treatment (to the sea after severe bronchitis with lung complications) and sold the only car for this. The case is in the Central District Court of Krasnoyarsk, and the next hearing is scheduled for June. Representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the border service completely deny their guilt.
Sri Lanka has introduced new visa rules since April 17. The electronic travel permit ETA has been discontinued, and an E-visa must be obtained instead. As you know, a visa for Russians is free until April 30, but when choosing a single-entry 30-day electronic visa (as if it were free), a service fee of $ 18.5 per person is charged on the new platform. The application processing fee is added to it – another $ 3.
Sakura blossomed
The first sakura in Moscow in 2024 bloomed on April 14 – at the Spring Flower Festival in the Botanical Garden of Moscow State University “Aptekarsky Ogorod”. Guests can see the legendary tree near the Subtropical Greenhouse – next to the small bird cherry. The cherry blossom season does not last very long: about a couple of weeks.
We will tell you with the support of another domestic travel service, where in Russia you can admire the real Japanese sakura. In Moscow, this is, of course, the exposition “Japanese Garden” in the Main Botanical Garden. Remember that the place is popular, so before you see sakura, you need to stand in a mind-blowing queue. As we have already said, sakura in Moscow can be seen in the Apothecary’s Garden and the Botanical Garden of the MSU Biofactory, next to the main building of the university and in the Biryulevsky Arboretum.
In St. Petersburg, the service offers to look at sakura flowers in the Friendship Garden on Liteyny Prospekt and in the Peter the Great Botanical Garden. But that’s not all: sakura also blooms in parks and gardens on Vasilyevsky Island, Primorsky Victory Park, Quiet Rest Park and next to Smolny Cathedral.
In Vladivostok, sakura grows on the territory of VSUES – Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service. Sakura appeared in the city in 2005: then a whole hundred trees were brought from the island of Hokkaido.
The largest collection of sakura in Russia is located in the Arboretum Park, which is considered one of the most popular attractions in Sochi. In the Arboretum, visitors can see 23 species of this plant.
In Volgograd, in the Central Park of Culture and Recreation, there is an alley of sixty sakura trees. Usually, the flowering season begins at the end of April and, if the heat comes to the city, it ends quickly.
Japanese sakura can also be seen in Chelyabinsk, which is not yet the most popular among tourists – it grows in the City Garden named after A.S. Pushkin. Due to the unstable weather, the season may last only a few days. There were years when the Chelyabinsk sakura began to bloom late, towards the end of May. Sakura appeared in Chelyabinsk by chance: in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the city garden was reconstructed, and one of the visitors brought several seedlings. Suddenly they caught on.
Invitation to partnership – t.me/snn1964
Share Share VKontakte Telegram Whatsapp Odnoklassniki Link
Источник: argumenti.ru
English 
Russian 
German 
Polish