Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts further reinforced its committment to the Middle East region by opening Four Seasons Alexandria, its fourth property in Egypt earlier this year. This opening brings the total number of Four Seasons properties in the region to nine.
“We are very excited to have opened the Alexandria property,” says Cesare Rouchdy, Senior Director of Marketing Four Seasons Egypt.
“We believe this is an important addition to our portfolio both here in Egypt and in the region as a whole. This property complements our other two city Hotels in Cairo and our Resort in Sharm El Sheikh, and is already reaching maximum capacity on a regular basis,” he adds.
Four Seasons Cairo at the First Residence was the group’s first foray into Egypt. Opening in May 2000, the property set a new standard in luxury in the country’s capital. Capitalising on the success of its Cairo property, Four Seasons then opened its first resort in the region in Sharm El Sheikh, overlooking the Red Sea. The third chapter in the Four Seasons story in Egypt, is the Nile Plaza property in Cairo, which opened in 2005.
October 06, 2007
Four Seasons Hotels strenghten its position in Egypt with fourth property
At Least 19 Killed In Congo Plane Crash
At least 19 people died when a Russian-made cargo plane crashed and exploded on Thursday in a busy area of Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital, officials said.
Seventeen passengers and crew on the Antonov 26 aircraft belonging to Congolese airline Africa 1 were killed when it came down on several houses in the Kingasani neighborhood, shortly after taking off from Ndjili Airport.
One father found the bodies of his young son and daughter crushed by a wall. Debris from the crash was widely scattered over neighboring streets and buildings.
"There has been heavy damage. Two houses have been completely destroyed," deputy Health Minister Ferdinand Ntua said at the crash site. "There are a lot of dead but for the moment we have no figures."
Air travel is notoriously dangerous in Congo. In 1996, at least 350 people died when a Russian-built Antonov 32 cargo plane ploughed through a crowded market in central Kinshasa, in the former Belgian colony's worst air disaster.
The Africa 1 aircraft was carrying 14 Congolese passengers and three Ukrainian crew, according to the plane's manifest.
"All the members of the crew and passengers are dead," a rescue official said.
An eye witness saw at least six corpses pulled from the wreckage of the plane as Red Cross and firemen joined family members picking through the devastation.
The stench of burning debris and jet fuel filled the air. Police struggled to hold back around 1,000 onlookers.
An airport security official who arrived quickly at the crash site said fire fighters had initially struggled to reach the wreckage in the crowded shanty town.
"There are at least four houses burning, the airplane is burning... There's a lot of smoke and flames, everybody in the houses must be dead," he said.
A spokesman for the 17,000-strong United Nations mission in Congo (MONUC), the largest in the world, said it had dispatched a rescue team and firefighters to the scene.
Ageing planes in Congo suffer from a lack of maintenance and spare parts but they are often the only way to transport people and goods across the vast central African country that is slowly recovering from a 1998-2003 civil war.
Eight people were killed in early September when another Antonov cargo plane overshot the runway and caught fire while landing in the eastern Congolese town of Goma.
Congo, a country the size of West Europe with only a few hundred kilometres of paved roads, has one of Africa's worst air safety records and was dubbed an "embarrassment" by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) last year.
Africa 1 is on the European Union's airline blacklist. All airlines certified by Democratic Republic of Congo authorities -- except for Hewa Bora Airways -- are banned from the EU.
Concorde Parts Under Hammer In French Auction
Reuters- Hundreds of components of the Concorde supersonic airliner, from headsets to toilet seats, are attracting strong bidding in a French auction which relives the era of luxury travel at twice the speed of sound.
Most of the 60 pieces sold on the auction's first day attracted around five times the asking price.
The Anglo-French aircraft was withdrawn from service in 2003 after ferrying the rich and famous across the Atlantic for 27 years at speeds up to 2,625 kph.
The auction runs until Monday in the French aviation capital of Toulouse where the sleek, droop-nosed aircraft was assembled in cooperation with Britain.
Items being sold to raise money for a museum include a pair of toilet seats weighing 5.8 kilos and available for auction prices starting at EUR400 euros (USD$567) each.
For the same asking price, collectors can bid for a Concorde pilot's headset.
A laminated cockpit window panel went for EUR3,100, 10 times the asking price, at the start of the auction on Friday.
If space is not a problem, the auction includes a couple of one-tonne Concorde landing gears on which the bidding starts at EUR2,000 - EUR3,000 -- wheels not supplied.
Among the most symbolic items for the plane's many fans, however, will be a "Machmeter" weighing just over a kilo and offered at a suggested price of EUR1,500 - EUR2,000. The instrument's dial recorded Concorde's speed as it slipped through the sound barrier, known as Mach 1.
"This sale has really got people carried away and we really welcome that because it is the last sale of Concorde accessories that will ever be organized," said auctioneer Marc Labarbe.
Designed in the 1960s, Concorde's cockpit instruments may look old-fashioned compared to the digital read-outs in modern passenger jets, but the plane's performance remains unmatched.
The plane carried 100 passengers and 9 crew at speeds up to Mach 2.2, almost three times the cruising speed of a Boeing 747.
The Mach number is the ratio of an aircraft's speed to the speed of sound.
Of the 20 Concordes built most are in museums or on display at London and Paris airports.
Concorde was suspended from service following its only crash outside Paris on an Air France flight in July 2000. It made only a temporary comeback before being withdrawn in 2003 as the two operating airlines cited heavy operating costs.
China's plane ambitions take off
By Michael Bristow 
BBC News, Beijing
China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I) is probably not a name that has executives at Boeing and Airbus quaking in their boots.
But the Chinese aircraft maker is currently assembling a regional passenger jet that it hopes will establish China as a major plane manufacturer.
The ARJ21 - which stands for Advanced Regional Jet for the 21st Century - is due to have its first test flight in March next year.
China believes this could be the start of a trend that will see the country build its own jumbo jets in the near future.
AVIC I, a state-run consortium based in Shanghai, says the regional plane is China's first independently developed passenger jet, although it will have engines made by US firm General Electric.
The plane, a model of which was on display at an aviation trade show in Beijing last month, has been primarily built for the Chinese market.
It has also been designed to cope with the high temperatures and high altitude runways it will encounter in China's western regions.
State-run media report that 71 ARJ21s, which will initially have 70 to 90 seats, have already been sold to domestic airlines, such as Shanghai Airlines. Other deals are pending.
These aircraft will be delivered from the end of 2009. A slightly larger version of the ARJ21, with 150 seats, will be produced later.
Expanding market
There will certainly be demand for more aircraft from China. In its latest forecast, Boeing said China would require 3,400 new planes worth about $340 billion over the next 20 years.
It expects China's domestic market to grow nearly fivefold by 2026, which will make it slightly larger than today's intra-North American market.
One of the problems in China is that even Chinese airlines do not want to buy China's own planes 
"Over the forecast period, China will have the fastest-growing market, making it the largest market outside of the US for new commercial airplanes," Boeing said.
With an expanding market, China is keen to develop its own manufacturing industry for passenger aircraft.
Li Zhiyong, from AVIC I's marketing and sales department, said: "At the moment, all aircraft that fly in China are made abroad so, sooner or later, China must produce its own planes."
But he added that the ultimate aim was to sell the ARJ21 abroad.
The firm already appears to have had some success. There are reports that Lao Airlines is considering buying two of the jets, becoming the plane's first foreign customer.
But, speaking at the Aviation Expo/China 2007, Mr Li said the most important hurdle had yet to be overcome.
"We have to get test flight licences from either Europe or the United States. This will allow us to sell the plane abroad more easily," he said.
Building expertise
AVIC I obviously hopes its plane will be a commercial success, but China does not hide the fact that the project has another role - to give technicians experience for future, larger projects.
"This is a big project for them," says Tom Ballantyne, of Orient Aviation magazine based in Hong Kong. "They are really hoping this will kick off airline production in China."
Earlier this year, the Chinese government confirmed that it wanted to build its own jumbo jets by 2020.
It believes it now has the expertise, and economic strength, to build a large passenger plane.
China also appears to think that, as one of the world's largest nations, it ought to have its own aircraft manufacturing industry.
"A home-made large aircraft may inspire the nation like the country's manned spacecraft program," said Liu Daxiang, from AVIC I's science and technology development department.
Mr Ballantyne agrees that China should be able to produce jumbo jets in the coming decades, but he says it might be difficult persuading airlines to buy the planes.
"One of the problems in China is that even Chinese airlines do not want to buy China's own planes," he said.
Boeing and Airbus, it appears, are not going to face any serious Chinese competitor any time soon.
