European travellers will be flying through the UAE's most northern emirate, Ras Al Khaimah, connecting to destinations across the Indian Subcontinent and Asia by 2020, according to the emirate's airport chief.
"Realistically, I would see RAK Airport by 2020 to be a connected hub to at least 25 to 30 destinations, having a number of based aircraft [and] bigger terminals,” said Mohammad Qazi, Ras Al Khaimah International Airport (RAK Airport) chief executive, in an interview on Thursday.
Ras Al Khaimah currently has just the one airline operating scheduled passenger services from the airport, Air Arabia, which launched services in May last year.
Air Arabia will fly to 10 destinations from RAK Airport from Sunday February 22 with the commencement of three-time weekly services to Doha in Qatar and Kathmandu in Nepal.
The Sharjah-based budget carrier has announced the Doha service but not Kathmandu, although tickets to Kathmandu are up for sale on its website. Qazi confirmed the new route would launch on Sunday.
Qazi, citing the emirate's growing tourism industry and potential overflow from the neighbouring airports, said he expects to "see some European connectivity” by the end of the decade including direct services from European carriers. While last month's announcement that Air Arabia will launch hub operations from Amman, Jordan, after buying a 49 per cent stake in Jordan's Petra Airlines, to be rebranded Air Arabia Jordan, bolstered Ras Al Khaimah's European chances, he said.
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Jordan has an open skies agreement with the European Union. Air Arabia has said it will launch services to European destinations from Jordan, which could stretch to Paris and London.
Qazi said RAK Airport can handle twice as many flights as it is currently operating before the airport would need to be expanded. The arrivals hall will complete its 40 per cent expansion by the mid-year, Qazi said but declined to divulge the costs involved in the same. He, however, added that the Ras Al Khaimah government, which owns RAK Airport, has funded the expansion.
Iranian potential
Qazi said he expects that India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran will be the airport's biggest destinations by passenger numbers by 2020. He said labour workers from the Subcontinent will make up a significant proportion of passengers travelling through the airport onto other Gulf countries.
Ras Al Khaimah is in negotiations with Iranian civil aviation authorities to gain rights to flight to the Islamic Republic, Qazi said. Although budget carrier flydubai appears to have the market cornered after announcing five new routes to the country this week meaning it will soon fly to seven cities in Iran.
Qazi said the RAK Airport remained profitable in 2014 despite its previous hub airline, RAK Airways, suspending services on January 1, 2014 and later terminating operations altogether. The airport saw no scheduled passenger traffic until May when Air Arabia launched services.
Source: Gulf News