How UAE defence giant EDGE Group plans to double its exports
The UAE defence conglomerate has put an aggressive strategy in place to increase its share of exports while navigating the growing gap between East and West.
AirAsia is to increase its Kuala Lumpur–Taiwan frequency to nine flights weekly from 15 April.
Following the route’s successful launch last year, AirAsia continued to boost its international connectivity to Taipei by launching more new destinations from its hubs which include Kota Kinabalu (direct daily flights) as well as the Thai city of Bangkok (direct daily flights). These bring AirAsia’s total number of weekly flights to and from Taipei to 23.
Kathleen Tan, regional head of commercial, AirAsia Group, noted, “The response has been extremely good for this route and we are running at an average of 80% load factor since its launch on 1 July 2009. The demand for the existing routes made it very clear for the need to introduce additional flights. The mounting frequency is a testament to AirAsia’s commitment of making travel accessible and affordable to all. It will also provide both business and leisure travellers with more flexibility and greater choice to connect onto AirAsia and AirAsia X’s extensive route network across ASEAN countries.”
The UAE defence conglomerate has put an aggressive strategy in place to increase its share of exports while navigating the growing gap between East and West.
The US Congress has raised concerns about how inflation rates and cuts in main acquisition programmes could affect the US military.
Washington’s ageing inventory and the pace Moscow and Beijing have been modernising their capabilities put in check the US Nuclear deterrence.
The Pentagon has been operating under temporary funding since October 2023, which has impacted its main acquisition and development programmes, increasing the capability gap between the US and China.
In 2023, defence spending increased by an unprecedented 11% across European NATO countries and Canada. Since 2014, the group has spent an additional US$600 billion on defence.
The DoD requested nearly US$850 billion to fund operations over the next fiscal year. Despite the amount being 1% higher than the FY2024 budget request, it has not covered the 3% inflation rate, which could impact the DoD’s main programmes in the medium and long term.