News
Riyadh’s KAFD To Launch Driverless Monorail By 2027
Saudi planners envisage smarter, more sustainable public transport as the King Abdullah Financial District monorail moves into gear.
Following the construction of the Riyadh Metro, another ambitious transport project is on track for the capital. The King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) is preparing to add a driverless monorail, designed to improve mobility within one of the city’s most modern business hubs.
Currently in its design stage, the 3.6 km network is expected to be started in late 2025. A consortium including CRRC, CRRC Nanjing Puzhen, and Hassan Allam is driving the project, which was first revealed in October 2023.
Trials are scheduled for early 2027, with public services set to follow later in the year. Once complete, the monorail will be able to move around 3,500 passengers per hour across a circular elevated track. The system will run six two-carriage trains, linking six stations throughout the financial district. Integration with the Riyadh Metro is also planned, making the new line part of a wider mobility ecosystem.
The design emphasizes sustainability and efficiency. Equipped with a fully autonomous driving system, the monorail will reduce congestion inside KAFD while offering quick access between the district’s landmark towers. For the King Abdullah Financial District Development and Management Company (KAFD DMC), the project is positioned as a core part of Vision 2030, supporting Riyadh’s transformation into a global financial and investment hub.
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The success of the Riyadh Metro underlines the importance of affordable, reliable public transport. Since launching in December 2024, the metro has already carried over 100 million riders in under nine months. With punctuality at nearly 99.8% and KAFD emerging as a key interchange, the metro has quickly become central to Riyadh’s new transport network.
The upcoming monorail builds on that momentum, promising a next-generation link that will make navigating the financial district faster, smarter, and more sustainable.
News
Trip.com Is Betting An AI Agent Will Book Your Next Vacation
Abu Dhabi, Jazeera Airways and a run of hotel deals give the company more inventory. Its Mastercard demo says the most about where booking technology is headed.
Most of what Trip.com Group announced at Arabian Travel Market 2026 this week reads like the standard expansion playbook of an online travel agency: a new agreement with a tourism board, a run of hotel partnerships, an airline deal. However, one item was considerably more interesting: a demonstration built with Mastercard of an AI agent that doesn’t just suggest trips but also pays for them.

The showcase put TripGenie, the company’s AI travel assistant, to work searching, selecting and completing purchases inside a single booking flow, with Mastercard’s Agent Suite for Merchants handling the payment step and Network International processing the transactions on the merchant side. It’s limited for now to attractions and ancillary services, but the partners plan a phased commercial rollout from early 2027.
“As traveller expectations change, technology and AI will play an increasingly important role in how people plan their journeys,” says Schubert Lou, CEO of Trip.com.
Meanwhile, in more conventional news, CEO Lou and Saleh Mohamed Al Geziry (Director General for Tourism at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi), signed an agreement building on the two organizations’ existing partnership, with joint marketing and Abu Dhabi destination content to be pushed across Trip.com Group’s platforms.
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On accommodation, the group expanded its partnerships with JA Hotels & Resorts, Ishraq Hospitality and Aleph Hospitality and deepened its work with Silkhaus, which brings vacation homes into a portfolio that has so far leaned on hotels. Jazeera Airways signed a strategic partnership intended to widen the Kuwaiti carrier’s reach and encourage earlier bookings, tied to Kuwait’s own tourism ambitions.
The company moved into a larger Dubai office earlier this year and describes its long-term aim as a two-way ecosystem: sending Middle East travelers abroad while drawing international visitors in.
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