marhaba, one of the world’s fastest growing passenger services providers, celebrates the first anniversary of its Melbourne lounge. Offering excellent value services for passengers of all airlines and travel classes, the marhaba lounge has been the first pay-as-you-go lounge at Melbourne Airport.

In the past 12 months, over 25,000 passengers were hosted in the spacious marhaba lounge, which features comfortable seating for 200 guests, a quiet zone, shower facilities and an international buffet complemented with an extensive a la carte menu. The comfort of visitors is ensured by a diverse team of 20 customer-oriented staff, who speak a total of 10 languages.  Passengers wishing to use the marhaba lounge can make online bookings at marhabaservices.com, on phone (+61 3 83428325, Australia) or simply walk in and pay for access on the spot at a rate of AUD65.

The marhaba lounge offers an exceptional dining experience to its visitors. Catering to a wide range of dietary and ethnic requirements, the passionate chefs prepared 40,000 world-class meals in the first year of operations. The most popular meals were the Won Ton Noodle Soup (over 2000 bowls), the Japanese Chicken & Vegetable Curry (3000 portions) and the New York Style Cheese Cake (1800 slices). At the dedicated barista bar Hudson’s, 75,000 cups of fresh coffee were prepared to energize visitors.

marhaba was established in Dubai in 1991, and has been helping passengers to seamlessly arrive and depart from airports for over 25 years – from speedy clearance to facilitating transfers, baggage and family travel. Including Melbourne, marhaba operates 12 departure airport lounges in five countries, the UAE, Singapore, Switzerland, Pakistan and Australia. marhaba’s meet and greet services are also available at major airports worldwide.

The marhaba brand is part of dnata, one of the world’s largest air services providers. dnata offers high quality, safe and reliable ground handling, cargo and flight catering services at nine airports in Australia.

Hiranjan Aloysius, CEO of dnata catering Australia, said: “We are delighted to celebrate a successful first year of our marhaba lounge.  Offering an outstanding value, our lounge quickly became popular among both business and leisure travellers and we continue to see a growing demand for our quality services. With our dedicated team and passion for excellence, we look forward to welcoming and delighting Melbourne passengers of all airlines and travel classes in our pleasant lounge.”

Linc Horton, Melbourne Airport Chief of Property, congratulated marhaba on a successful first year of operation at Melbourne Airport.

“marhaba has done a great job at securing airline partners and attracting travellers to its pay-as-you-go lounge, which was the first of its kind to open in Melbourne,” said Mr Horton.

“There’s nothing quite like relaxing in a lounge before a long-haul flight and the marhaba experience certainly provides a sense of calm and luxury with its breathtaking view of the airfield. We hope marhaba continues to enjoy success now and into the future.”