State-owned airport operator DAA has tabled bids for the running of a number of international airports, after having seen a successful first full year operating part of the King Khaled International Airport (KKIA) in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh.

Hundreds of angry passengers have said they endured a 28-hour overseas flight which included 12 hours on a tarmac in the Middle East without food or proper information.

An Irish engineering firm, based in the Middle East, is hoping to recruit up to 70 workers after it secured a €16m contract at Abu Dhabi Airport.

A row over a meal on a passenger jet escalated into what the pilot took to be a bomb threat, forcing him to make an unscheduled stop in the United Arab Emirates.