Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/674824
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 4 MAY 2016 17 Events Emirates launches A380 operations to Taipei and Prague EMIR ATES has expanded the network of destinations served by its f lagship A380 aircraft with the launch of new sched- uled A380 services to Taipei and Prague, becoming the first and only airline to operate an A380 into these two cities. Emirates has seen a rise in demand for its services on both routes, and together with the increasing popularity of the Emirates A380 experience among customers, the airline made the decision to deploy one of its f leet of 77 A380 aircraft on each route. Taipei was introduced as a daily Boeing 777 service on 10th February 2014 and Emir- ates has since transported near- ly 450,000 passengers between Taipei and Emirates' Dubai home. The Prague-Dubai route was launched earlier, on 1st July 2010 with a daily A330 service and Emirates has since carried over 1.1 million passengers be- tween the two cities. "Taiwan is a significant mar- ket for Emirates and we have witnessed a strong and steady growth in demand since our start of services in 2014. We are committed to cultivating the market through continuous in- vestment and we are confident that the launch of our new A380 service will open up further opportunities in business and tourism between Taiwan and other countries," Emirates ex- ecutive vice president and chief commercial officer Thierry An- tinori, said. "We are grateful for the sup- port that our partners, the air- ports and the local authorities in both Taiwan and Prague have provided to make it possible for us to bring our A380 into these markets. Operating a higher ca- pacity aircraft supports tourism and trade and helps serve the healthy and growing demand from leisure and business trav- ellers on both routes," he added. For Taiwanese travellers, f lights EK366 and EK367 will be served by the new two-class configuration offering a total of 615 seats: 58 in Business Class and 557 in Economy Class. Emirates operates daily sched- uled f lights between Malta and Dubai. Emirates f lies twice weekly to Malta, on Mondays and Wednesdays, via Larnaca in Cyprus, and on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays the airline oper- ates the Dubai - Malta route on a circular routing via Tunis in Tunisia. The return f light f lies direct from Malta to Dubai. The A380 aircraft was met with a traditional water canon salute on arrival at Taipei Taoyuan International Airport. Second national JAYE Malta start-up programme exhibition held at The Point THE Junior Achievement Young Enterprise Malta start up pro- gramme that offers tertiary and vocational education students the opportunity to experience setting up their own potential company, held their second annual national exhibition on Saturday 16th April at The Point, Sliema. A total of 11 teams from the Uni- versity of Malta and St. Martin's Institute participated in the event, with participants from various faculties and departments, high- lighting the significance that en- trepreneurship is not just a busi- ness and commerce focus. "I was pleasantly surprised by the noticeable improvement in the quality of the teams since the last judging session. There were some good business concepts that have been developed well," Senior Terri- tory partner at PWC & head judge for the start-up programme panel of judges, Kevin Valenzia said. The teams from second and third year University students included: Hangertag, Freshy.io, Visuals.io, AK Artistry and Hijabi and the teams from St. Martin's Institute who have integrated the start-up programme into their curriculum at First Year level of their Busi- ness Studies University degree programme, was made up of: De- lights, Delish, Mausey's, Real Evil Muffins, Swift and Sweet Tooth. Prototypes varied from innova- tive options for muffins, healthy snacks, sweets, chocolate-coated apples, recruitment applications, food saving schemes, e-commerce solutions and an online art portal. "The JAYE Malta Start Up Pro- gramme provides our students the opportunity to practise what they have learnt during lectures. The experience is invaluable, al- though stressful. Students attain the insight in preparing a market appraisal and feasibility report leading to a business plan, which is pitched to attract prospective investors to buy equity in the new company. The whole exercise fits with the academic preparation of the syllabus," director of St. Mar- tin's Institute Charles Theuma said. JAYE Malta has been offering students of all ages practical en- trepreneurship education for over 25 years, with the flagship Pro- gramme being the Sixth Form Company Programme. The Start Up is the latest addition to JAYE Malta's six programme offerings and targets tertiary level students across the island. The Start Up Programme prepares participants (aged 19 – 30 years) to present an investment proposal that, if vi- able, could be the winner of some seed capital to get the idea off the ground. Youth Parliamentary Secretary Chris Agius with JAYE Malta board member Michael Cutugno and CEO Julian Azzopardi enjoying some of the offerings of one of the teams exhibiting their prototype products at the JAYE Malta start up programme national exhibition at The Point shopping mall on Saturday 16th April. ASTHM A is a common and treatable disease that can impact heavily on quality of life. Medical experts now agree that the level of asth- ma control is a key feature when determining the best asthma treatment required. At least 50% of patients in Europe have poor control of their asthma, despite the availability of treatments to help manage their condi- tion. For World Asthma Day 2016, on 3rd May, Glaxo- SmithKline (GSK) Malta has launched a new and im- proved website to provide asthma sufferers and their doctors with a useful score which will help them deter- mine the level of treatment required. The asthma control test has been conceived by medical asthma experts and scien- tifically tested on hundreds of asthmatic sufferers.1 Some of the new asthma control test features include compatibility with any digi- tal device with access to in- ternet, reduced test time, printable results, and avail- ability for both children and adults. GSK contributed to the development of the asthma control test (w w w.asthmac- ontroltest.com). Maltese patients are encouraged to take this online test that takes less than a minute. World Asthma Day: GSK Malta launches improved website to test Asthma control An infographic released by GSK Malta on the occasion of the World Asthma Day Mediterranean leaders hear Maltco's CEO spell out the future for national lotteries MALTCO, Malta's national lot- tery, were a contributing spon- sor to The Economist's Medi- terranean Leadership Summit in Malta, where Maltco CEO Vasileios Kasiotakis addressed the delegates on what the future holds in store for technologies in national lotteries. Kasiotakis outlined the impact of technol- ogy on the lottery business, and explained that nonetheless the human element of personal ser- vice will remain crucial to the business. Kasiotakis then went on to outline the factors that create a successful lottery business, "I do think we are just begin- ning the process of reshaping the lottery market from a very traditional, paper-based indus- try, into an industry that offers a wide variety of consumer op- tions in games, and platforms to play these games," he said. "Agent-assisted sales will nev- er disappear from the local con- text, but they may evolve so that the nature of the assistance isn't all absorbed by processing trans- actions," he said adding that the human touch of agent assistance to address shoppers' needs will always be there. "That's their 'raison d'etre,' one of the key value-added proper- ties of retailing that differenti- ates it from other distribution channels," he said, adding that people like to interact with other people as a normal fact of life. He added that the company felt that the product should be made available in as wide a variety of channels as possible, with easier access for the consumer trans- lating to increased entertain- ment value. Maltco CEO Vasileios Kasiotakis addressing the Mediterranean Leaders Summit