“Ras Al Khaimah airport has been sleeping for awhile,” says Roland Blaney, CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Int’l Airport. “There have been various efforts to get airlines in there, but because of the historical strengths, the marketing appeal of Dubai, its really been difficult for the second tier airports like ours to grab their slice of the cake,”he says.

Blaney, only months into the job, clearly has a challenge on his hands. The ruling family of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) – one of six emirates comprising the United Arab Emirates – has voiced its wish for the emirate to put its stamp on the region’s booming aviation industry.

This includes working with the RAK Airways team to see whether it is worth establishing a national carrier again. “But we’re also tasked with getting carriers in because it’s far easier for a carrier to add us to their network than force a lot of funds into a national carrier to get started,” he said adding that the economic downturn has largely meant attracting any new carriers in the short term is unlikely.

The push to get a slice of the region’s aviation pie, is not just about the airline or airport, however. RAK’s development organization, two free trade zones and the RAK investment authority are allworking towards developing industry and logistics in the emirate.

“The seaports in RAK are coming on fast we’re trying to cling on to their coat tails so we can get the same kind of development,” he said.

Overall the region’s aviation industry is big enough to support the airport’s ambitions, he said. “There’s enough going on for us to claim a share – there’s enough for a niche airport like ours, whether its passenger charter flights, executive aircraft, maintenance facilities, or even just parking planes, we’ve got a lot of land.”

For now Blaeny is beating a path around the aviation industry to assess interest as he formulates a strategy. “It probably will be around a cargo hub and later passenger carriers. We will not ignore any passenger airline that wants to fly in a charter, but preferably scheduled carriers.”

There is also an interested party who wants to set up maintenance facilities for large aircraft down to Cessna-sized aircraft, he said. “As long as we can work it out to give them a good sized land area and build taxiways to that part of the airport, it will happen.

Cargo to Kabul
The key target, according to Blaney, is establishing RAK airport as a cargo hub, with key business driven by reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We would like to get some of the Iraqi business because we believe Sharjah is saturated.”

“If we can get the cargo hub going we’ll worry about the passenger business later. We just want to establish regular shipmentsand we think Kabul could be the answer,” he said. Currently RAK airport istalking to some interested parties aboutbeing the gateway to Kabul, and “that’ssomething we’re hoping to see the fruitsof very shortly,” he said. Reconstructionflights to Iraq are another target, but thisis more difficult because commercialtie-ups between Iraqi Airways and theSharjah and Dubai airports.

The airport already has a connection to the Afgan capital with monthly shipments of armoured cars – the armour installed at one of RAK’s free trade zones – air freighted once a month to Kabul. “Once more industries come to the free trade zone, that’s going to overflow onto us, because you need an airport for those kind of activities,” Blaney said.

Airport infrastructure
In terms of facilities the airport opened a new arrivals terminal about eight months ago and plans to re-locate the VIP terminal, establish a duty free and create a transfer desk for the passenger side.

A 24-hour airport Ras Al Khaimah International Airport has 19 bays on the main apron and has a warehouse with modern equipqment, including an x-ray machine capable of scanning containers. “We’re also working with customs to make sure they understand we need speed of movement of cargo in and out,” he added.

But the immediate work will be on two crucial areas: Upgrading the runway and installing new runway lighting. “The runway and and lighting are not up to spec, and the runway is probably the oldest in any of the airports around the UAE,” he said, adding that AED40 million (US$10.9 million) has been earmarked for the runway refurbishment.

“We hope that by end of the year we will have a refurbished, almost brand new runway, we’ve got the airfield lighting but we’ve got to get the right civil works company in to do it properly. We’re trying to avoid too many interim solutions, I don’t want to have to back every year and add on here and there.”