98-649: Hong Kong Airlines Limited ( HKA ), operating as Hong Kong Airlines ( Chinese : 香港航空公司 ), is an airline based in Hong Kong , with its headquarters in the Tung Chung district and its main hub at Hong Kong International Airport . It was established in 2006 as a member of the HNA Group and flies to 25 destinations across Asia–Pacific . The company slogan was changed from Fresh + very Hong Kong to Where Hong Kong Begins . Robert Yip (Chinese: 葉光 ),
196-504: A Bombardier CRJ200 leased from GE Capital Aviation Services . In September 2003, the airline applied for traffic rights to operate scheduled passenger services to Laoag and the Chinese cities of Jinan , Naning , Meixian and Wenzhou . In addition, Yip sold 40% of the airline to his company, China Rich Holdings, for HK$ 180 million. By March 2004, the airline had added Siem Reap , Cambodia to its charter network. In April 2005,
294-509: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from
392-429: A new logo, which represents a bauhinia flower, the symbol of Hong Kong where the airline is anchored. The airline made the biggest aircraft order in its young history on 21 June 2007, ordering 51 narrow - and wide-body aircraft from European plane maker, Airbus , at an estimated value of US$ 5.6 billion. The airline's IATA code was changed from N8 to HX on 27 May 2007. On 24 October 2008, in preparation for
490-773: A rivalry that would become known as the Great Game . Mahan realized not only the strategic importance of the region, but also of its center, the Persian Gulf . He labeled the area surrounding the Persian Gulf as the Middle East. He said that, beyond Egypt's Suez Canal , the Gulf was the most important passage for Britain to control in order to keep the Russians from advancing towards British India . Mahan first used
588-808: A vital role in the Middle East, and they represent 40.5% of Lebanon, where the Lebanese president , half of the cabinet, and half of the parliament follow one of the various Lebanese Christian rites. There are also important minority religions like the Baháʼí Faith , Yarsanism , Yazidism , Zoroastrianism , Mandaeism , Druze , and Shabakism , and in ancient times the region was home to Mesopotamian religions , Canaanite religions , Manichaeism , Mithraism and various monotheist gnostic sects. The six top languages, in terms of numbers of speakers, are Arabic , Persian , Turkish , Kurdish , Modern Hebrew and Greek . About 20 minority languages are also spoken in
686-545: Is Aramaic and its dialects are spoken mainly by Assyrians and Mandaeans , with Western Aramaic still spoken in two villages near Damascus, Syria. There is also an Oasis Berber -speaking community in Egypt where the language is also known as Siwa . It is a non-Semitic Afro-Asiatic sister language. Persian is the second most spoken language. While it is primarily spoken in Iran and some border areas in neighbouring countries,
784-539: Is Middle Eastern and the derived noun is Middle Easterner . While non-Eurocentric terms such as "Southwest Asia" or "Swasia" have been sparsely used, the classificiation of the African country, Egypt, among those counted in the Middle East challenges the usefulness of using such terms. The description Middle has also led to some confusion over changing definitions. Before the First World War , "Near East"
882-869: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;
980-646: Is present in areas in neighboring countries. It is a member of the Turkic languages , which have their origins in East Asia. Another Turkic language, Azerbaijani , is spoken by Azerbaijanis in Iran. The fourth-most widely spoken language, Kurdish , is spoken in the countries of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, Sorani Kurdish is the second official language in Iraq (instated after the 2005 constitution) after Arabic. Hebrew
1078-429: Is the official language of Israel , with Arabic given a special status after the 2018 Basic law lowered its status from an official language prior to 2018. Hebrew is spoken and used by over 80% of Israel's population, the other 20% using Arabic. Modern Hebrew only began being spoken in the 20th century after being revived in the late 19th century by Elizer Ben-Yehuda (Elizer Perlman) and European Jewish settlers, with
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#17327732932821176-493: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to
1274-728: The Maghreb , the western part). Even though the term originated in the West, countries of the Middle East that use languages other than Arabic also use that term in translation. For instance, the Persian equivalent for Middle East is خاورمیانه ( Khāvar-e miyāneh ), the Hebrew is המזרח התיכון ( hamizrach hatikhon ), and the Turkish is Orta Doğu. Traditionally included within the Middle East are Arabia , Asia Minor , East Thrace , Egypt , Iran ,
1372-516: The Arab world . The most populous countries in the region are Egypt, Turkey, and Iran, while Saudi Arabia is the largest Middle Eastern country by area. The history of the Middle East dates back to ancient times , and it was long considered the "cradle of civilization". The geopolitical importance of the region has been recognized and competed for during millennia. The Abrahamic religions, Judaism , Christianity , and Islam , have their origins in
1470-842: The Arabian Peninsula ( Magan , Sheba , Ubar ). The Near East was first largely unified under the Neo Assyrian Empire , then the Achaemenid Empire followed later by the Macedonian Empire and after this to some degree by the Iranian empires (namely the Parthian and Sassanid Empires ), the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire . The region served as the intellectual and economic center of
1568-547: The Baháʼí Faith . Throughout its history the Middle East has been a major center of world affairs; a strategically, economically, politically, culturally, and religiously sensitive area. The region is one of the regions where agriculture was independently discovered, and from the Middle East it was spread, during the Neolithic, to different regions of the world such as Europe, the Indus Valley and Eastern Africa. Prior to
1666-536: The COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 further worsened HKA's financial crisis. On 7 February 2020, the airline announced that it was cutting 400 positions (equivalent to 10% of its workforce), mainly pilots and cabin crew . It also asked remaining staff to take two months of unpaid leave, or to switch to a three-day work week. On 18 February, HKA announced that it would suspend in-flight services such as food, drinks, pillows, and blankets to protect customers and crew during
1764-532: The Central Powers , was defeated by the British Empire and their allies and partitioned into a number of separate nations, initially under British and French Mandates . Other defining events in this transformation included the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the eventual departure of European powers, notably Britain and France by the end of the 1960s. They were supplanted in some part by
1862-657: The Far East ). The term "Middle East" has led to some confusion over its changing definitions. Since the late 20th century, it has been criticized as being too Eurocentric . The region includes the vast majority of the territories included in the closely associated definition of West Asia , but without the South Caucasus . It also includes all of Egypt (not just the Sinai ) and all of Turkey (including East Thrace ). Most Middle Eastern countries (13 out of 18) are part of
1960-617: The Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department . In June, Skytrax ranked Hong Kong Airlines as the second-best regional airline and 24th-best internationally. In August, Atlas Air announced that it had placed three 747-400 freighters with Hong Kong Air Cargo. The first aircraft was to enter service in September 2017, serving routes between the United States and Asia. Delivery of the remaining two aircraft
2058-693: The International Organization for Migration , there are 13 million first-generation migrants from Arab nations in the world, of which 5.8 reside in other Arab countries. Expatriates from Arab countries contribute to the circulation of financial and human capital in the region and thus significantly promote regional development. In 2009 Arab countries received a total of US$ 35.1 billion in remittance in-flows and remittances sent to Jordan , Egypt and Lebanon from other Arab countries are 40 to 190 per cent higher than trade revenues between these and other Arab countries. In Somalia ,
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#17327732932822156-635: The Kensiu language . Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula , the Levant , Turkey , Egypt , Iran , and Iraq . The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western European nations in the early 20th century as a replacement of the term Near East (both were in contrast to
2254-587: The Levant , Mesopotamia , and the Socotra Archipelago . The region includes 17 UN -recognized countries and one British Overseas Territory . Various concepts are often paralleled to the Middle East, most notably the Near East , Fertile Crescent , and Levant . These are geographical concepts, which refer to large sections of the modern-day Middle East, with the Near East being the closest to
2352-736: The Nile Delta in Egypt, the Tigris and Euphrates watersheds of Mesopotamia , and the basin of the Jordan River that spans most of the Levant. These regions are collectively known as the Fertile Crescent , and comprise the core of what historians had long referred to as the cradle of civilization (multiple regions of the world have since been classified as also having developed independent, original civilizations). Conversely,
2450-581: The Sassanid Empire . However, it would be the later Islamic Caliphates of the Middle Ages , or Islamic Golden Age which began with the Islamic conquest of the region in the 7th century AD, that would first unify the entire Middle East as a distinct region and create the dominant Islamic Arab ethnic identity that largely (but not exclusively) persists today. The 4 caliphates that dominated
2548-640: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝ 'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for
2646-787: The Somali Civil War has greatly increased the size of the Somali diaspora , as many of the best educated Somalis left for Middle Eastern countries as well as Europe and North America . Non-Arab Middle Eastern countries such as Turkey , Israel and Iran are also subject to important migration dynamics. A fair proportion of those migrating from Arab nations are from ethnic and religious minorities facing persecution and are not necessarily ethnic Arabs, Iranians or Turks. Large numbers of Kurds , Jews , Assyrians , Greeks and Armenians as well as many Mandeans have left nations such as Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey for these reasons during
2744-779: The State-owned Assets Commission of Hainan Province (2006–2021) and subsequently the Liaoning Fangda Group (2021–). The company had a legal battle over corporate ownership in 2019. The airline's head office is at One Citygate in Tung Chung , close to Hong Kong International Airport. SATS Hong Kong Ltd. (SATS HK) is a joint venture with SATS Ltd. which provides passenger self-handling and ramp services at Hong Kong International Airport and HKA Holidays Ltd. (HKA Holidays) offers travel products, including fixed charter flight tickets, tour packages, and hotel accommodation. In 2015, Hong Kong Airlines
2842-491: The first native Hebrew speaker being born in 1882. Greek is one of the two official languages of Cyprus , and the country's main language. Small communities of Greek speakers exist all around the Middle East; until the 20th century it was also widely spoken in Asia Minor (being the second most spoken language there, after Turkish) and Egypt. During the antiquity, Ancient Greek was the lingua franca for many areas of
2940-614: The Arabic equivalent of Middle East (Arabic: الشرق الأوسط ash-Sharq al-Awsaṭ ) has become standard usage in the mainstream Arabic press. It comprises the same meaning as the term "Middle East" in North American and Western European usage. The designation, Mashriq , also from the Arabic root for East , also denotes a variously defined region around the Levant , the eastern part of the Arabic-speaking world (as opposed to
3038-605: The Hong Kong Air Transport Licensing Authority (ATLA) granted a five-year licence to transport passengers, cargo, and mail to China; the airline was free to apply for traffic rights to 10 cities in China. Then in July, the airline announced the imminent purchase of two Bombardier CRJ700s from Danish carrier Maersk Air . At the end of the year, a memorandum of understanding with Boeing for
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3136-573: The Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department. Scheduled flights to Moscow were launched later that month. In September 2010, the airline introduced its first Airbus A330F cargo freighter, on a route from Hong Kong to Hangzhou. It officially joined the IATA the next month. In 2011, Hong Kong Airlines was awarded a 4-star rating by Skytrax . Its passenger traffic exceeded one million, serving 19 destinations. On 8 March 2012,
3234-531: The Levant, all originated in the Fertile Crescent and Nile Valley regions of the ancient Near East. These were followed by the Hittite , Greek , Hurrian and Urartian civilisations of Asia Minor ; Elam , Persia and Median civilizations in Iran , as well as the civilizations of the Levant (such as Ebla , Mari , Nagar , Ugarit , Canaan , Aramea , Mitanni , Phoenicia and Israel ) and
3332-595: The Levantine coast and most of Turkey have relatively temperate climates typical of the Mediterranean , with dry summers and cool, wet winters. Most of the countries that border the Persian Gulf have vast reserves of petroleum . Monarchs of the Arabian Peninsula in particular have benefitted economically from petroleum exports. Because of the arid climate and dependence on the fossil fuel industry,
3430-980: The Middle East for more than 600 years were the Rashidun Caliphate , the Umayyad caliphate , the Abbasid caliphate and the Fatimid caliphate . Additionally, the Mongols would come to dominate the region, the Kingdom of Armenia would incorporate parts of the region to their domain, the Seljuks would rule the region and spread Turko-Persian culture, and the Franks would found the Crusader states that would stand for roughly two centuries. Josiah Russell estimates
3528-470: The Middle East in its geographical meaning. Due to it primarily being Arabic speaking, the Maghreb region of North Africa is sometimes included. The countries of the South Caucasus – Armenia , Azerbaijan , and Georgia – are occasionally included in definitions of the Middle East. " Greater Middle East " is a political term coined by the second Bush administration in
3626-472: The Middle East is both a major contributor to climate change and a region that is expected to be severely adversely affected by it. Other concepts of the region exist, including the broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which includes states of the Maghreb and the Sudan . The term the " Greater Middle East " also includes parts of East Africa , Mauritania , Afghanistan , Pakistan , and sometimes
3724-671: The Middle East. Arabic, with all its dialects, is the most widely spoken language in the Middle East, with Literary Arabic being official in all North African and in most West Asian countries. Arabic dialects are also spoken in some adjacent areas in neighbouring Middle Eastern non-Arab countries. It is a member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Several Modern South Arabian languages such as Mehri and Soqotri are also spoken in Yemen and Oman. Another Semitic language
3822-407: The Middle East. Arabs constitute the main ethnic group in the region, followed by Turks , Persians , Kurds , Azeris , Copts , Jews , Assyrians , Iraqi Turkmen , Yazidis , and Greek Cypriots . The Middle East generally has a hot, arid climate, especially in the Arabian and Egyptian regions. Several major rivers provide irrigation to support agriculture in limited areas here, such as
3920-408: The Middle East. For the period between the 1970s and 1990s, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf in particular provided a rich source of employment for workers from Egypt, Yemen and the countries of the Levant, while Europe had attracted young workers from North African countries due both to proximity and the legacy of colonial ties between France and the majority of North African states." According to
4018-451: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China
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4116-400: The Roman Empire and played an exceptionally important role due to its periphery on the Sassanid Empire . Thus, the Romans stationed up to five or six of their legions in the region for the sole purpose of defending it from Sassanid and Bedouin raids and invasions. From the 4th century CE onwards, the Middle East became the center of the two main powers at the time, the Byzantine Empire and
4214-400: The South Caucasus and Central Asia . The term "Middle East" may have originated in the 1850s in the British India Office . However, it became more widely known when United States naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term in 1902 to "designate the area between Arabia and India". During this time the British and Russian empires were vying for influence in Central Asia ,
4312-419: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,
4410-1064: The World" Student Sponsorship Programme and "School Sharing Workshops". A frequent flyer program, the Fortune Wings Club, is operated by Hong Kong Airlines and its sister airlines Grand China Air, Grand China Express , Hainan Airlines and Lucky Air . Membership benefits include air ticket redemption and upgrade; dedicated First or Business Class check-in counters, Club Autus and Club Bauhinia lounge access, bonus mileage and extra baggage allowance. Business class on long-haul flights has 180-degree flat beds and direct aisle access. Passengers may use two business lounges: Club Autus and Club Bauhinia. They can also earn Fortune Wing Points, depending on their fare class. Most economy class seats do not feature personal televisions (PTV), even on long-haul aircraft. On long-haul flights, passengers are given complimentary tablets, which serve as an in-flight entertainment system, including video-on-demand. Hong Kong Airlines serves 40 destinations (including cargo), but not including codeshare. Hong Kong Airlines codeshares with
4508-423: The airline launched daily flights from Hong Kong to London Gatwick Airport with an Airbus A330-200 aircraft. It operated as an all-Club Class service, featuring 34 "Club Premier" (business class lie-flat beds) and 82 "Club Classic" (cradle style recliner business class) seats. The service lasted only six months. In 2013, Hong Kong Airlines concluded a system-wide strategy review to determine its priority routes for
4606-468: The area from Mesopotamia to Burma , namely, the area between the Near East and the Far East. In the late 1930s, the British established the Middle East Command , which was based in Cairo , for its military forces in the region. After that time, the term "Middle East" gained broader usage in Europe and the United States. Following World War II, for example, the Middle East Institute was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1946. The corresponding adjective
4704-411: The arrival of the Airbus A330-200 wide-body aircraft, the airline announced plans to adjust personnel and fleet composition. The new aircraft was to provide medium-haul passenger and cargo services to the Middle East and Australia. On 8 June 2010, Hong Kong Airlines completed their flight certification from Hong Kong to Beijing, earning an air operator's certificate for the Airbus A330 operations from
4802-488: The boost of travelling markets. On 22 Aug 2024, HKA Chairman Jeff Sun announced that Hong Kong Airlines will reboot the flights to Gold Coast (OOL) in January 2025. At the mean time, Sun claimed they will import three used Boeing 787s from its parent company Hainan Airlines to the long-haul flights from Hong Kong to Canada and USA re-introducing back in 2025; since the fleet of Airbus A350 had been sold in 2023. On 21 November 2024, Chairman of Hong Kong Airlines, Yan Bo
4900-417: The borders of India or command the approaches to India." After the series ended in 1903, The Times removed quotation marks from subsequent uses of the term. Until World War II , it was customary to refer to areas centered around Turkey and the eastern shore of the Mediterranean as the " Near East ", while the " Far East " centered on China , India and Japan . The Middle East was then defined as
4998-413: The chairman of China Rich Holdings, established CR Airways in Hong Kong on 28 March 2001. The airline received its air operator's certificate (AOC) from the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department (CAD) in 2002, with its first aircraft a Sikorsky S-76 C+ helicopter, which could carry 12 passengers and fly at 285 kilometres per hour (177 mph). It was Hong Kong's third commercial helicopter operator and
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#17327732932825096-409: The commercial and operational conditions for airlines active in Hong Kong. On 28 December 2015, Hong Kong Airlines flight HX658 bound for Okinawa became the first departure from the HKIA Midfield Concourse . In April 2017, the firm's air cargo business in Hong Kong was set up as an independent subsidiary cargo airline of Hong Kong ( Hong Kong Air Cargo ), having received its operator's licence from
5194-450: The company slogan was changed from Fresh + very Hong Kong to Where Hong Kong Begins . In late 2018, a series of leaders resigned from the carrier's management, including its board's two co-chairmen Mung Kin-keung and Zhang Kui, its chief financial officer and vice-chairman, and at least four other directors. Hou Wei, who was vice-president and chief marketing officer at Hainan Airlines, later took over as chairman. The attempted expansion
5292-479: The country and are generally different from the English terms. In German the term Naher Osten (Near East) is still in common use (nowadays the term Mittlerer Osten is more and more common in press texts translated from English sources, albeit having a distinct meaning). In the four Slavic languages, Russian Ближний Восток or Blizhniy Vostok , Bulgarian Близкия Изток , Polish Bliski Wschód or Croatian Bliski istok (terms meaning Near East are
5390-455: The country is one of the region's largest and most populous. It belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the family of Indo-European languages . Other Western Iranic languages spoken in the region include Achomi , Daylami , Kurdish dialects, Semmani , Lurish , amongst many others. The close third-most widely spoken language, Turkish , is largely confined to Turkey, which is also one of the region's largest and most populous countries, but it
5488-546: The economy of the Western world [...] Within this contextual framework, the United States sought to divert the Arab world from Soviet influence. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the region has experienced both periods of relative peace and tolerance and periods of conflict particularly between Sunnis and Shiites . Arabs constitute the largest ethnic group in the Middle East, followed by various Iranian peoples and then by Turkic peoples ( Turkish , Azeris , Syrian Turkmen , and Iraqi Turkmen ). Native ethnic groups of
5586-418: The emerging independent countries of the Islamic world . However, the usage "Near East" was retained by a variety of academic disciplines, including archaeology and ancient history . In their usage, the term describes an area identical to the term Middle East , which is not used by these disciplines (see ancient Near East ). The first official use of the term "Middle East" by the United States government
5684-402: The facility to concentrate in force if occasion arise, about Aden , India, and the Persian Gulf. Mahan's article was reprinted in The Times and followed in October by a 20-article series entitled "The Middle Eastern Question", written by Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol . During this series, Sir Ignatius expanded the definition of Middle East to include "those regions of Asia which extend to
5782-409: The farther west countries while Middle East referred to the eastern ones, but that now they are synonymous. It instructs: Use Middle East unless Near East is used by a source in a story. Mideast is also acceptable, but Middle East is preferred. European languages have adopted terms similar to Near East and Middle East . Since these are based on a relative description, the meanings depend on
5880-607: The first decade of the 21st century to denote various countries, pertaining to the Muslim world , specifically Afghanistan , Iran , Pakistan , and Turkey . Various Central Asian countries are sometimes also included. The Middle East lies at the juncture of Africa and Eurasia and of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea (see also: Indo-Mediterranean ). It is the birthplace and spiritual center of religions such as Christianity , Islam , Judaism , Manichaeism , Yezidi , Druze , Yarsan , and Mandeanism , and in Iran, Mithraism , Zoroastrianism , Manicheanism , and
5978-401: The first helicopter operator to receive an AOC since Hong Kong became a special administrative region of China . On 27 June 2003, CR Airways became Hong Kong's third passenger airline after receiving a revised AOC from the director-general of Civil Aviation. It operated its first passenger service the next day. It started passenger charter operations to Laoag , Philippines on 5 July 2003, with
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#17327732932826076-475: The following airlines: As of September 2024, Hong Kong Airlines operates an all- Airbus fleet composed of the following aircraft. Hong Kong Airlines (then CR Airways) has previously operated the following aircraft: [REDACTED] Media related to Hong Kong Airlines at Wikimedia Commons Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan ,
6174-505: The formation of civilizations, advanced cultures formed all over the Middle East during the Stone Age . The search for agricultural lands by agriculturalists, and pastoral lands by herdsmen meant different migrations took place within the region and shaped its ethnic and demographic makeup. The Middle East is widely and most famously known as the cradle of civilization . The world's earliest civilizations, Mesopotamia ( Sumer , Akkad , Assyria and Babylonia ), ancient Egypt and Kish in
6272-410: The highest in the world, and the international oil cartel OPEC is dominated by Middle Eastern countries. During the Cold War, the Middle East was a theater of ideological struggle between the two superpowers and their allies: NATO and the United States on one side, and the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact on the other, as they competed to influence regional allies. Besides the political reasons there
6370-495: The immediate future with key focus areas on the Asia–Pacific region during this period. One new route was established when the Hong Kong–Maldives service was inaugurated. Total passenger traffic had reached over four million and the last of its Boeing aircraft were retired. In 2014, Hong Kong Airlines launched new passenger routes between Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City, Tianjin and Kagoshima; they also increased daily flight frequency to Beijing and Shanghai. The airline's lounge service
6468-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from
6566-407: The last Auckland flight departed for Hong Kong on 22 May 2019. HKA also discontinued its Fuzhou service in September 2019, while its San Francisco route was halted in October 2019 – less than two years after its launch in March 2018. In turn, the carrier increased the number of flights to three other short-haul destinations: Haikou , Hangzhou , and Sapporo . By November 2019, HKA
6664-454: The last century. In Iran, many religious minorities such as Christians , Baháʼís , Jews and Zoroastrians have left since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 . The Middle East is very diverse when it comes to religions , many of which originated there. Islam is the largest religion in the Middle East, but other faiths that originated there, such as Judaism and Christianity , are also well represented. Christian communities have played
6762-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as
6860-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In
6958-916: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often
7056-677: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as
7154-404: The only appropriate ones for the region. However, some European languages do have "Middle East" equivalents, such as French Moyen-Orient , Swedish Mellanöstern , Spanish Oriente Medio or Medio Oriente , Greek is Μέση Ανατολή ( Mesi Anatoli ), and Italian Medio Oriente . Perhaps because of the political influence of the United States and Europe, and the prominence of Western press,
7252-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as
7350-628: The pandemic. However, this was later reported to be "a desperate attempt to cut costs" as the airline faced a potential collapse. The following day, the airline announced that it would lay off an additional 170 employees, mostly cabin crew. In June 2021, Hong Kong Airlines announced that it would ground its entire fleet of A320s , leaving only eight A330s flying in the interim and prioritising cargo, as part of its pandemic-survival plan. The plan also called for hundreds more jobs to be cut. Hong Kong Airlines has resumed their flights to Hakodate , Denpasar , Maldives , Saipan and Taichung, Taiwan due to
7448-580: The population of what he calls "Islamic territory" as roughly 12.5 million in 1000 – Anatolia 8 million, Syria 2 million, and Egypt 1.5 million. From the 16th century onward, the Middle East came to be dominated, once again, by two main powers: the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid dynasty . The modern Middle East began after World War I , when the Ottoman Empire, which was allied with
7546-833: The predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to
7644-464: The purchase of 10 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 30 Boeing 737-800s for US$ 3.28 billion took the business to the next level. Some of the aircraft were from a prior Hainan Airlines order. On 27 June 2006, Hainan Airlines secured a 45% holding in the airline by purchase of convertible notes held by Yu Ming Investments, which was to be injected into its new airline holding company, Grand China Air . Two months later, Mung Kin-keung ( 蒙建強 ) acquired
7742-439: The region as including only Egypt , Syria, Israel , Lebanon , Jordan , Iraq, Saudi Arabia , Kuwait , Bahrain , and Qatar . Since the late 20th century, scholars and journalists from the region, such as journalist Louay Khraish and historian Hassan Hanafi have criticized the use of "Middle East" as a Eurocentric and colonialist term. The Associated Press Stylebook of 2004 says that Near East formerly referred to
7840-662: The region include, in addition to Arabs, Arameans , Assyrians , Baloch , Berbers , Copts , Druze , Greek Cypriots , Jews , Kurds , Lurs , Mandaeans , Persians , Samaritans , Shabaks , Tats , and Zazas . European ethnic groups that form a diaspora in the region include Albanians , Bosniaks , Circassians (including Kabardians ), Crimean Tatars , Greeks , Franco-Levantines , Italo-Levantines , and Iraqi Turkmens . Among other migrant populations are Chinese , Filipinos , Indians , Indonesians , Pakistanis , Pashtuns , Romani , and Afro-Arabs . "Migration has always provided an important vent for labor market pressures in
7938-423: The remaining 55% of the airline and became the controlling shareholder on 7 August and its director on 13 August. Mung's previous main business interest had been a 30% holding in a restaurant operator, Banana Leaf (Asia Pacific) Catering Group Company Ltd. On 22 September 2006, CR Airways Ltd officially changed its name to Hong Kong Airlines Ltd, with a launch ceremony on 28 November 2006. The airline also introduced
8036-534: The rising influence of the United States from the 1970s onwards. In the 20th century, the region's significant stocks of crude oil gave it new strategic and economic importance. Mass production of oil began around 1945, with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates having large quantities of oil. Estimated oil reserves , especially in Saudi Arabia and Iran, are some of
8134-521: The set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of
8232-648: The term in his article "The Persian Gulf and International Relations", published in September 1902 in the National Review , a British journal. The Middle East, if I may adopt a term which I have not seen, will some day need its Malta , as well as its Gibraltar ; it does not follow that either will be in the Persian Gulf. Naval force has the quality of mobility which carries with it the privilege of temporary absences; but it needs to find on every scene of operation established bases of refit, of supply, and in case of disaster, of security. The British Navy should have
8330-636: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with
8428-985: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write
8526-518: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being
8624-585: The western Middle East and until the Muslim expansion it was widely spoken there as well. Until the late 11th century, it was also the main spoken language in Asia Minor ; after that it was gradually replaced by the Turkish language as the Anatolian Turks expanded and the local Greeks were assimilated, especially in the interior. English is one of the official languages of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. It
8722-587: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c. 200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c. the 5th century . Although
8820-411: Was also the "ideological conflict" between the two systems. Moreover, as Louise Fawcett argues, among many important areas of contention, or perhaps more accurately of anxiety, were, first, the desires of the superpowers to gain strategic advantage in the region, second, the fact that the region contained some two-thirds of the world's oil reserves in a context where oil was becoming increasingly vital to
8918-642: Was anticipated in 2018. All three aircraft were to be operated by Atlas Air on behalf of Hong Kong Air Cargo. In September 2017, Hong Kong Airlines took delivery of its first Airbus A350-900 , which shortly began service in a Bangkok (BKK) route. The company also launched its "Club Autus" VIP lounge at the HKIA Midfield Concourse. With the A350-900 aircraft, the airline began operating direct flights to Los Angeles on 18 December 2017, and to San Francisco three months later. In December 2017,
9016-496: Was draining the company financially, and in March 2019, Hong Kong Airlines announced a cutback in its passenger fleet from 38 to 28 planes, and reduced services on some of its new international routes, including to Vancouver , San Francisco, and Los Angeles. In an attempt to roll back loss-making long-haul services in favour of more profitable Asian destinations, flights to Gold Coast and Cairns were suspended from October 2018, and
9114-512: Was facing severe financial difficulties due to the China–US trade war and 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests . It was reportedly unable to pay employees' salaries on time. The airline announced that it would end its remaining long-haul routes (to Los Angeles and Vancouver) starting February 2020, thus becoming a purely regional airline . It also announced the termination of its in-flight entertainment system from 1 December 2019 to cut costs. The onset of
9212-689: Was in the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine , which pertained to the Suez Crisis . Secretary of State John Foster Dulles defined the Middle East as "the area lying between and including Libya on the west and Pakistan on the east, Syria and Iraq on the North and the Arabian peninsula to the south, plus the Sudan and Ethiopia ." In 1958, the State Department explained that the terms "Near East" and "Middle East" were interchangeable, and defined
9310-671: Was relaunched as "Club Bauhinia" on 27 June 2014. In February 2015, Hong Kong Airlines signed a sub-lease with the Airport Authority Hong Kong to develop a flight training center on a 0.6-hectare (1.5-acre) plot near the southeast perimeter of Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA). In March 2015, the airline joined the Executive Committee of the Board of Airline Representatives in Hong Kong (BAR HK), holding hands with another almost 80 airlines to improve
9408-406: Was reported to have told Hong Kong-based media that the airline is in plans of acquiring Comac's C919 aircrafts following 12 months of sustained fleet growth (from 21 to 30 aircrafts over 2024) and the resumption of long-haul flights especially to North America . The airline was expected to have 5 million passengers in year 2024. It was acquired in 2006 by Hainan Airlines, actually controlled by
9506-807: Was selected as the Official Carrier for the Hong Kong Paralympic Committee and the Sports Association for the Physically Disabled. The airline has joined the Caritas Fund Raising Bazaar for six consecutive years from 2009 and sponsored Hong Kong events marking the "World Diabetes Day 2012". The airline also has many student sponsorship and aviation education programmes, including its "Triumph Sky High" Junior Programme, "Embrace
9604-563: Was used in English to refer to the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire , while "Middle East" referred to the Caucasus , Persia , and Arabian lands, and sometimes Afghanistan , India and others. In contrast, " Far East " referred to the countries of East Asia (e.g. China , Japan , and Korea ). With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, "Near East" largely fell out of common use in English, while "Middle East" came to be applied to
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