Saudi Arabia's The Helicopter Company (THC), the kingdom's first commercial helicopter operator, signed an agreement to buy 10 Airbus H125 helicopters to grow its fleet and boost access to domestic tourism destinations.
THC, which is backed by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, will use the new rotorcraft to roll out new tourism services and missions including filming, banner-towing and aerial surveying, Airbus and THC said in a joint statement on Thursday.
"By signing this agreement, THC has taken a massive step in expanding its fleet and implementing its ambitious operational plan," Arnaud Martinez, chief executive of THC, said.
"We are proud to be contributing to the advancement of Saudi Arabia’s tourism and aviation industries."
The Public Investment Fund (PIF) started the company in March 2019 with an initial capital injection of 565 million riyals (Dh553.3m) to connect Saudi Arabia's major cities and offer tourists a view of the kingdom from above.
The company is planning sightseeing trips, pilgrimage flights and air ambulance services in "the near future", according to its website.
It currently offers private helicopter flights and services such as providing portable helipads.
“This order marks the beginning of a new partnership with The Helicopter Company," Ben Bridge, executive vice president of Global Business at Airbus Helicopters, said.
“The H125 is the perfect helicopter for developing commercial operations in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia as it is a powerful and truly versatile aircraft, particularly suited to hot and high environments.”
Saudi Arabia has announced a series of projects and measures to develop its nascent tourism sector as the world’s top oil exporter diversifies the economy from hydrocarbons and introduces social reforms.
The PIF has also backed mega-projects in entertainment, tourism and heritage to build the industry and encourage spending both by citizens and foreigners.
The sovereign fund, which holds stakes in local and international companies such as ride-hailing tech giant Uber, is central to Riyadh’s economic diversification agenda.
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Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
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The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder turbo
Transmission: CVT
Power: 170bhp
Torque: 220Nm
Price: Dh98,900
The stats
Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT
Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
Length: 315.3 metres
Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)
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