Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) welcomed Pegasus’ inaugural flights from Instanbul to Ras Al Khaimah on November 28. The flight departed from Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SAW) on November 27 at 9:50 pm and arrived at Ras Al Khaimah International Airport (RKT) at 3:20 am on November 28. The arrival of the first flight was celebrated with a water cannon salute for the aircraft and a special cake cutting ceremony attended by key figures in the aviation industry, including representatives from RAK Civil Aviation, RAK Airport, RAKTDA and Pegasus. H.E. Engr. Sheikh Salem bin Sultan bin Saqr Al Qasimi, member of the Government of Ras Al Khaimah Executive Council shared, “We are proud to announce the new route between Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport and Ras Al Khaimah International Airport. RAK is a key player in the local aviation market, and this is just one of the many developments we have planned for the airport in the coming months and years.” Raki Philips, Chief Executive Officer of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority commented, “The new route from Istanbul to Ras Al Khaimah is a fantastic achievement for the airport. It opens up our beautiful emirate to key markets in Turkey and beyond. The new route is just in time for one of our busiest seasons, as the weather cools down, tourists are able to take full advantage of Ras Al Khaimah’s many great outdoor assets, inclusive of the beaches and mountains.” Sanjay Khanna, Chief Executive Officer of Ras Al Khaimah International Airport added, “The new route from Istanbul to Ras Al Khaimah is a fantastic achievement for our airport and I cannot wait to see the …
Read More »Spice Jet to begin five weekly flights from Delhi to Ras Al Khaimah
Ras Al Khaimah International Airport (RKT) has expanded its route network and partnered with SpiceJet to connect its new services from New Delhi to Ras Al Khaimah effective December 2019. SpiceJet, India’s second-biggest airline will operate regular direct flights between Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi and Ras Al Khaimah International Airport, Ras Al Khaimah. The route will be operated five times a week, targetted to gradually increase the frequency. H.E. Engr. Sheikh Salem Bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Chairman, Board of Ras Al Khaimah International Airport and Department of Civil Aviation Ras Al Khaimah, said, “We are pleased to welcome SpiceJet to our expanding network of international carriers at Ras Al Khaimah International Airport and look forward to this long-term partnership with them. We are constantly working towards upgrading travellers experience and adding more routes to and from Ras Al Khaimah. Apart from the addition of a very vital route, this relationship will serve to be a very strategic one serving the wide Indian diaspora of residents and businesses in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah given the advantage of the extensive flight network of SpiceJet. We look forward to welcoming SpiceJet’s guests and hope they enjoy a relaxing and enjoyable experience at our airport.” Mr. Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet, said, “We are delighted to add Ras Al Khaimah as our 11th international destination. With more than 3400 Indian companies headquartered in Ras Al Khaimah, we see great potential in this route. Partnering with Ras Al Khaimah International Airport will help expand our operations and we see it as the way for SpiceJet to grow within the UAE, Europe and beyond.” Mr. Sanjay Khanna, CEO, Ras Al …
Read More »Pegasus Airlines to start operations from Ras Al Khaimah in October 2019
Turkey’s leading low cost carrier Pegasus Airlines will fly direct from Ras Al Khaimah International airport from October 28, 2019, this was revealed at a special interview with Haitham Matthar, CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, stating that this will further enhance tourism arrivals from Europe and Russia via Istanbul. Commencing from October 28, 2019, Pegasus Airlines will operate scheduled flights between Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport and Ras Al Khaimah International Airport, and will operate the direct route twice a week every Saturday and Wednesday. The new flight operation will provide outbound and transit travellers from Istanbul a smoother and seamless access to Ras Al Khaimah, one of the fastest-growing destinations in the Middle East. The carrier’s new route will further connect Ras Al Khaimah with 26 European destinations including the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, the Nordics and Russia via Istanbul. Mattar said, “We are pleased to announce our strategic partnership with Pegasus Airlines that will help us introduce Ras Al Khaimah to the Turkish market and most importantly allow us to leverage Istanbul’s proximity and hub connectivity with our key feeder markets within Europe and Russia. This new addition is an important step in our continuous drive to increase accessibility and visibility, attract more high yield visitors, and ultimately boost both first-time and repeat visitation from our source markets.” As per figures last year, Germany, Russia and the UK continue to be the leading international source markets for Ras Al Khaimah, driven by a strong appetite for the destination’s year-round offering. Ras Al Khaimah International Airport now welcomes direct connectivity from various global destinations including Cairo, Islamabad, Jeddah, Lahore, Peshawar, Calicut, Katowice, Poznan, Warsaw, Luxembourg, Prague, …
Read More »RAK Airport movements soar over 18%
After a record-breaking 2016, this year is looking just as promising for Ras Al Khaimah International Airport. Passenger volume to date has increased 6% over 2016. On the cargo front, volumes are up 30.2% on prior year as the long-term strategy for the sector, which included additional routes coming on stream, comes to fruition. This growth has also impacted overall aircraft movements which are up 17.6% year-on-year. Mohammed Qazi, CEO, RAK International Airport, who has been driving the strategy, noted, “Year 2017 started strongly as we continued our focus on promoting Ras Al Khaimah as the fastest-growing tourist destination regionally as well as the specialist cargo centre in the regional market, but summer was something we wanted to target this year as an indicator of our growing success. Even though the summer success has seen us breaking previous records, we have already finalised our winter charters schedules and are introducing further new scheduled routes, such as Romania, starting from December.” The continuing growth that’s been experienced means that all passenger, movements and cargo tonnage records since the airport’s original inauguration have now been surpassed. Charter flights have been running throughout the summer for the first time as Ras Al Khaimah moves towards being a year round destination for tourists. In addition the airport’s first scheduled direct service to Europe kicked off with a connection to Prague. “While the commercial performance has been at its strongest in our history, we have also invested in infrastructure with a new departures terminal and we’ll be completing our cargo expansion by the end of the year,” Qazi added. Technological innovation has also been at the heart of this year’s success. For smaller airports such as …
Read More »RAK Airport sees 68% y-o-y growth in 2016
Ras Al Khaimah International Airport has enjoyed a highly successful 2016, according to its Chairman Engr. H.E. Sheikh Salem bin Sultan Al Qasimi. In terms of passenger numbers Ras Al Khaimah’s tourism industry has also contributed to figures that show 68 per cent growth over 2015 on a like-for-like basis. That marker alone makes 2016 one of the most successful years for the airport in its recent history, but cargo tonnage climbed an even more impressive 98 per cent and aircraft movements increased by a handsome 37 per cent. Sheikh Salem believes that this shall be the airport’s most positive year, with a host of landmarks passed and records broken during its course. Sheikh Salem explained, “A lot of hard work has been put in over recent years and we have now started to reap some of the rewards. In February, Qatar Airways inaugurated their flights from Doha to Ras Al Khaimah, connecting RAK to long haul routes in Europe, China and beyond. In April Air India Express gave us an Indian connection that goes some way to satisfying the still under-served Indian sector from RAK. In May Sun MRO started their setup at RAK to establish a narrow body repair and maintenance centre and in September we had the inauguration of Egypt Air Cargo flights, the first flag carrier freighter operating to RAK. The beginning of October saw an early start of winter tourism season with ten charters coming from various parts of Europe, CIS and Russia. The latter was a result of joint efforts by RAK Airport and RAK Tourism Development Authority.” Mohammed Qazi, the airport’s CEO, also noted that in addition to these key moments Ras Al …
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