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RAK International Airport woos airlines with no limit on slots

As published in Airport Cities

Ras Al Khaimah International Airport, situated in the industrial hub of UAE Ras Al Khaimah which enjoys accessibility to Ajman, Umm Al-Quwain and Fujairah and 45 minutes away from Dubai, welcomes airlines with to start operations by offering unlimited slots. The airport is second base in UAE for one of Middle East’s largest LCC Air Arabia. The emirate is one of the favourite destinations for tourists because of its quieter and affordable attractions. The RAK Tourism Development Authority recently reported nearly 1.5 million guest nights for the first time for the January-to-September period in 2014, which is a 72 percentage growth compared to last year figures.

With strong industrial sector and booming tourism sector the emirate is hoping to build its aviation infrastructure to attract more and more international carriers to start operating from RAK International Airport.  Ras Al Khaimah International Airport CEO Mohammed Qazi discussed the facilities and future opportunities in an exclusive interview.

Speaking on the accessibility for air slots, Mr. Qazi says, “RAK airport is one of the few airports in UAE with no restrictions on the slot round the clock. For any airline wanting to operate, the airport is probably best interms of available slots but also for handling catering or any other services provided for the airline.” According to Mr. Qazi, what stands out is the operational performance and unique passenger experience RAK Airport offers. The airport is designed for a quick turnaround for aircrafts. By avoiding air bridges RAK enables the passengers to directly walk into the terminal after landing. RAK Airport has invested substantially in developing infrastructure to process immigration very quickly.

“We work very closely with border control authorities so that when a passenger arrives the desks are open and functioning. These are some unique features of RAK Airport in addition to the much lower cost for the commercial package offered by us. We are offering better incentives and the airport is situated at an accessible distance from both ends, particularly for anyone coming from the north of Sharjah, there is much less traffic,” he added. The airport also provides free parking for passengers.

On speaking what airport is taking these offerings to the world; Mr. Qazi says, “It’s never easy to market an airport to a passenger because people don’t travel from airport to airport they go to airport to because they travel in airline so our market is to target airlines. We go to specific events and media in terms of events we go to events like routes conference where you can promote your airport to airlines and we go to specially journals and magazines.

After Air Arabia started operating from RAK International airport the number of destination the airport connects to are around 7; however the airport plans to connect to 30 destinations by the end of 2015. “Thirty destinations by the end of 2015 is quite an aggressive growth plan, we are working very closely on our route development strategy with the Civil Aviation Authority of RAK after Air Arabia started servicing from the airport. We believe it can be achieved as long as we remain focused and work in partnership with our partners,” Mr. Qazi said.

According to Mr. Qazi key markets the airports looks into inline with Air Arabia’s profile anything up to 5 hrs flying distance, are Central Asian markets India, Pakistan, Srilanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and towards Eastern Europe, CIS region Russia as well as Africa and GCC and Gulf countries.

The airport features a 2000 sqm cargo terminal designed in such a fashion that it moves cargo very quickly. “It is not storage based cargo terminal instead it is designed as a transit cargo airport. Presently we are working with Air Arabia to grow the cargo business, particularly on the perishable Cargo side of the business.” Mr. Qazi said.

Supporting the industrial sector in RAK

Ras Al Khaimah is an emirate with booming industrial activities and is home to largest bulk handling port in the MENA, Saqr Port as well as huge companies like RAK Ceramics, Julphar Pharmaceuticals and international brands such as The Waldorf Astoria, Gulf Oil, Arc International, Ashok Leyland, Knauf and China Harbour.

To support this industrial growth RAK international Airport is leveraging its capacities to establish a free zone, which will primarily attract aviation related business and tailor made package for businesses based in RAK. “It’s not one solution or offer for everyone rather its more focused and tailored based on the necessities between us and the investment partner who is investing in RAK.” Mr. Qazi explains.

Feeding the tourism sector

An airport plays key role in raising the profile of any tourism destination and connecting it to the other places. When it comes to RAK, the emirate has a very cohesive strategy for tourism development. “RAK airport works with tourism authorities, airlines, hotels, tour operators and destination management companies alike to promote RAK as tourism destination. We see positive developments as a number of new hotels opened this year there some more in the pipeline.”

RAK had a total of 500o hotel keys this year and it is expected to grow 500 per cent in next 24 months. Some of the resorts established in RAK are best in the region; still the price range is far more attractive than similar resorts within the country. “RAK is becoming very popular with short breaks or long weekend breaks particularly for tourists from GCC. We have two target markets - the Europeans, who stay around 7-10 days and we have GCC, travellers who stay around 3-4 days.” Mr. Qazi said adding that RAK, climate wise is fairly cooler than other emirates and tourist get more of traditional Arabian feel and more of a holiday feel against a holiday spent in city, where you spend half of your time in traffic jams.

In addition to world class hotels and resorts, the charter services offered in RAK is an important business. “We target a number of tour operators in Charter and it bring a significant amount of tourists to RAK, so Charter is top of the agenda specially for the winter  flying programme, which we have every year. We remain keen to grow our charter business further as it is one of the main part of our business strategies,” Mr. Qazi said.

Expounding further on the charter business he says the RAK Airport’s offerings to a charter operator depends on the frequency it brings and they are incentivised quite generously. Mr. Qazi also says Charter Operators have expressed satisfaction saying RAK Airport offers are best they have come across.

Looking forward

An airport RAK International needs multiple strategies to be successful, you need to build clusters and have to work on all of them simultaneously. According to Mr Qazi, Air Arabia definitely is a very important component of RAK Airport’s strategy and working together at operation front it has been a success. In terms of airport’s support to Air Arabia, the airline has almost zero issues. “Second phase of this is to develop this further and put together a joint route development strategy, which we have started. Then we got strategy towards charter business and we are pursuing that,” Mr Qazi said.

Further he says, “In addition to above, RAK has got its private aviation business – Dana Jet, I am the CEO for that business, we are pushing in business on this front too. However, RAK Airport also woos private aviation companies for FBO and developing facilities to provide business aircrafts maintenance, hangar services and flight operation services.

The other areas of business RAK Airport exploring include live factory management, training and the proposed freezone. “The live factory management will dismantle and scrap aircrafts. We have gone through request proposal stage and have received interests. We are also pleased that our search has narrowed down to one supplier, however an official announcement will be made in the due course of time,” Mr Qazi informed.

RAK Airport is also exploring opportunities in training and it is in talks with a few companies to move their training facility in to the airport. “As you know aviation sector in the region is suffering shortage in well trained staff, training is a potential market,” Mr Qazi hopes. Moreover, the proposed freezone is going to be a key player in strategy going forward. The airport is also working on the plans to integrate freezone with the cargo operation to attract freight forwarders.

“These are the revenue streams, that we have to prioritize and work simultaneously to make RAK Airport successful hub for business and leisure alike,” Mr. Qazi concluded.

The airport had gone from being a home base for a struggling carrier to being the base for most successful LCC in the Middle East within a few weeks and with a holistic approach for the future growth it undoubtedly a future hub for both passenger and cargo growth in the UAE.