RAK staff

It has become blatantly obvious that you two, 737BBJ and stranger2008, are nothing but hate-mongers, so I will refrain from voicing any more opinions. To 737BBJ I advise you to acquaint yourself with the airline industry, when newspapers in the region say 'aviation history' has been made because RAK Airways opened 2 destinations within 12 hours of operations I think they are well aware of what they are saying. If, as you claim he hasn't done anything for RAK Airways, what do you say of the CEO's before him who got paid twice as much and achieved nothing? As to stranger2008 you will quickly realize who I am when I leave RAK in a few weeks. As for Captain Khalid I understand that he has a very well established business in his home country and is not in need of your dubious charity or another job. I didn't realize you two were out for his blood and had nothing of substance to say. I suggest stranger2008 learn some proper English!

RAKwhere

RAK Staff. It is far too obvious that you are none other then Khalid Almeer. You finally taste some of your own medicine. For months you have treated people like slaves.

All the cabin crew as well as all but one pilot are happy to see the end of this terror.

There will be much partying for many weeks to celebrate.

Now that King K. is gone maybe people will reconsider whether they are leaving RAK or not.

When KK arrived everyone hoped that things would be different and although he was paid more than double what mr k. got his most important contribution was notices about smelly food.

RAK Staff maybe it is time you give up working in aviation. You can now add RAK to the list of Etihad, Qatart, and Gulfair that are not happy with you performance.

Stranger2008

More News...........

1- RAK Airways staff celebrated the former COO’s departure by huge chocolate cake and little dance….. in Khalid Almeer funeral
2- Khalid Almeer has paint factory in Qatar and will operate his labours with his perfect English ( just need perfect accent)
3- Cabin Crew’s salaries will be increased as they complained to new COO and he listened to them.
4- VP finance is still under investigation

Will get back to you later …. ignore RAK Staff .. he is in pain……

Gulfstreamaviator

How many Potties does it take to change a CEO.....


Sorry, in bad taste,

How many air transport undertaking can one person be the ACCOUNTABLE MANAGER, and have the GCAA been given the 10 days notice of change, and have they approved the replacement post holder(s).

glf

Stranger2008

Dear Gulfstreamaviator, Khalid Almeer was a past holder as VPOps not Accountable Manager. Dr. has been considered as accountable manager since KT left.(the Cement guy).

I heard Captain Ryami is going to be something over there….. the head of flight ops

Lets watch…..

737BBJ

RAK staff,

I could choose to be sarcastic when writing this, but I think I will keep it pretty simple; If you would know me as well as some of the RAK people do, you would also know how stupid it sounds when you ask me to aquaint myself with the airline industry. And you just made it even more stupid when you refer to me as a hate-monger. I think I will do as stranger2008 suggests; ignore you.

secretary

I am not sure if you can accept this, I am not a pilot so I don't know if this counts. I am glad Capt is gone, he was too aggressive with staff and shouted alot. I think you can do the job without shouting so much. I am sure RAK staff is not him, because his English was not that good, and his spelling was very terrible. We know who wrote that, he asked us to before if we want to say, some of the staff did help him, but not me.
I did not like capt. Khalid but it is not true we did not eat cake, stranger2008 is making up stories to make us look bad. She was a big bully, just like him and we are glad she is gone. We are too scared to do something so obvious because there are too many spies in the company. I hope next CEO is nicer man, he looks like a good man. Thank you for sending this.

Stranger2008

Dear Secretary,
you sound to be a nice person and I assume you are one of RAK Airways staff just I am surprised why didn’t you eat the cake? maybe you were absent on Thursday or maybe you are one of cabin crew not office staff.. but be sure I did not make stories up.

By the way I don’t know why every one talking about “she” but I assume she should be the former HR Manager who was involved with auditors. I saw her myself in RAK Ceramic building sitting with auditors and Manager of Al Hamra Travel the small Indian guy. (som
Anyway I am glad she is gone too …. Somehow she was pain to me ...….(lets just forget about her)
Also I don’t know why you are too scared to do something even if there are spies you should not be scared as long as you are doing the job that you were recruited for…….

737BBJ

pferpilot,

I have been following RAK Airways since the days of Hamra Air, and if what you bring to us is half the truth, I hope for the sake of international aviation that the GCAA and the RAK Airways Board Of Directors lift themselves by the neck and start setting things straight.

When you let pilots enter service without proper conversion courses (not the first time in this airline), not proper training and SOP knowledge, flying outside of the Duty Time Limitations etc. etc., the responsible person(s) must take action, being the GCAA and/or the Board Of Directors.

That managers are cutting corners does not justify that pilots do violate the Duty Time Limitations or enter into a new company without following the laid down rules in the manuals. Hey guys, we all know how this is supposed to be. Why is it so difficult to live by the books? Is it mentality. Is it attitude. Or is it simply lack of better knowledge? Whatever it is, RAK Airways with its numerous managers coming and going has not been able to enter international aviation with pride. Not by a long shot. Sad.

A pilots lot

To pferpilot,

It is with interest I read your posting, which led me to wonder which airline in the world actually follows the rules and regulations? I know in Qatar Airways there is NO RULE that we haven't broken. I have just started my flying career but feel woefully discouraged by the so-called compliance of the rules and regulations. If there is a way to bend a rule here, then it is done with aplomb, that seems to be the way the industry gets by the shortage of pilots, it is the sad reality of a pilots life.
On another note, a met an acquaintance of Romero's a while back, he seemed a nice enough chap and was quite clear on how they get things done in RAK. I don't think it can be pure bad luck that EVERY CEO they recruit jumps ship or isn't up to the job; common sense dictates that there is something wrong there. His friend claimed you couldn't buy a pencil for the company without the say-so of the Board of Directors and there was so much politics in RAK that it was impossible to get things done. If you protested too much they did their best to trump up some false charges and put you in a dark cell. Don't know Captain Khalid, and I don't think I want to, but he wasn't stupid running for his life, (just like a couple of CEO's before him) if that's the way they treat their CEO's I guess they will be changing hats again soon.

KarlosFandango

Common Guys.
I would be lying if I said I was terribly disappointed by the recent turn of events. However, the company is still here... the aircraft is still flying and passenger numbers are slowly growing... people who work here still depend on their jobs to make a living and feed their families.
Our dirty washing has already been spread over the web for all to see too many times, so lets keep personal names and personal attacks out of it.
The people who are here know the truth and may make their own choice to cut their losses and leave, but lets not further damage the chances for the ones who decide to stand and fight to help it recover and grow.

secretary

Dear stranger2008,
We will stand by RAK and do our best for the company, but the rumors in RAK are that the former HR Manager framed the former COO because he fired her. It is true then she is back again! if you saw her with the auditors we are in trouble. She was very difficult to work with, rude to everyone and thinks she is the boss, and she only hires Iranians!
Sadly she did not respect anyone, and loved to shout especially at the secretaries!
We were so glad she left, I am committed to the company and will do my best for the new CEO, he seems quiet and very kind and does not practice favoritism and respects all nations equally. Thank you.

RAK staff

Dear Gulf Bus,
I am sorry to say, your research was inadequate!
First of all I am in RAK, and if you had asked the right questions you would find that to be true, secondly you would also have discovered that Captain Khalid's wife has been hospitalized for the last week as she was taken ill on her flight back from Bangkok. Everyone in RAK, even his so-called enemies, are aware that Captain Khalid's wife is suffering from terminal Cancer and that he was frequently called back home to attend to her failing health. Maybe that was the over-riding reason why he left RAK, who knows?
I find it hard to believe that it's not possible to express a word of praise for the poor man. At the end of the day, his colleagues in RAK are entitled to their opinion, just as you, Sir are entitled to yours. I cannot vouch for Captain's Khalid's former career, he may well have been fired from Qatar Airways etc, I can only comment on what we have seen here.
Your dealings with him may have been wholly negative, mine were positive and inspiring, lets leave it at that shall we?
This will be my last posting, I primarily wanted to refute your accusations against the Captain's wife, she is in very poor health and I felt it a tad shallow to attack her at this sensitive time. We all wish her the best of health. Good day.

Real RAK Staff

Many of the cabin crew and almost all cockpit crew were going to leave due to him and him alone. Two pilots have already resigned recently with one then cancelling his resignation due to some special deal! One of Khalids other special deals was to hire a pilot co officer and get him a validation to fly as a captain when he had not been a captain on the aircraft before and what’s more no simulator check, proper interview or line training, hope the GCAA can look into this. The new VP Ops acting needs to fix this co officer / pilot they hired and who Khalid got a validation for as a captain without any line training, this is scary, the pilots are mad about this, especially the ones who are waiting to be promoted! Cabin crew hate flying with this guy. Everyone is talking about this.
One of his other deeds was to appoint a captain as a training captain who only had a licence from a country that did not for years have international standards and whats more he didn’t fly for many years. All the pilots and the cabin crew are horrified by this also lets hope his replacement (Acting VP Ops) stops this, if he doesn’t then we will know he is no better than his predecessor. Why is the real training captain not back flying as a training captain (The one who ran the office and got the airline flying before Khalid arrived) as we all know Khalid hated him and saw him as a threat as he did a great job helping to get RAK in the Air.
All the goals achieved by the airline were due to many other hard working staff and defiantly not Khalid. Even the initial proving flight happened on his first or second day in the company so how can he take credit for that. The Aircraft contract in Turkey was in existence before he joined he just changed it and screwed up by approving a change allowing the aircraft to fly short sectors which would have cost RAK money rather than make money, what’s more he fired the guy who set up the contract but the Dr hired him as Manager Al Hamra travel I think? Where are the flights to India? Khalid was fired from Qatar Airways, Qatar CAA and Etihad were very glad to see him go after only 6 months, while he was in Gulf Air he had many problems too I can see.


Dr Khater has just saved the airline by getting rid of the most useless COO/ VP Ops the airline has had to date. Lets hope he gets an experienced real Airline CEO who knows what he is doing such as Etihad and Emirates have or even the guy in Qatar that everyone says bad stuff about as that airline works too. One thing was for sure, morale was really low but right now it has gone up massively! So many happy faces in the RAK Airways office today no tears for sure except joy! The Cake really happened too, big party in the office sorry I missed it but it really happened!
Acting COO is going to try his best and will ask advice so lets wish him all the best, we may be ok with him as COO if he takes advice and gets rid of Khalids other mistakes (people he hired)! Lets hope Dr Khater / new COO can re hire a couple of the good people who Khalid got rid in Engineering and HR.

ShinjukuHustler

Here’s a question that I was wondering about…

Of all the staff that were in RAK Airways in Dec 2006, how many were left by Dec 2007?
I’m not trying to be a smart a55, just curious.
From reading all of these posts all that seems to happen at RAK is that people come, they stay for a while, and then they get fired or in some cases they quit, or pretend to quit but are really fired, anyway, they never stay very long.

It really is a revolving door style system. At any rate, the trend seems to be well and truly set and it I sincerely hope it will stop but as each new CEO arrives, there always seems to be another one not far behind, and what a mixed bag they’ve been.

I’d love to know how much money has been poured down the potty, pun intended, since inception. I would bet that is was enough to start at least 2 well run airlines to date.
Considering that there was $250million in the pot-tee to begin with, I wonder how much is left before ‘doc pot’ decides that enough is enough, last one out flushes.

In hind sight, the right thing to do, with that amount of start up capital, would have been to ACMI some aircraft and then gradually move into self sufficient operations.

It could have and would have worked. It would have required less staff, would have taken less time to get started, and would have given them the opportunity to establish their name, their route network and their brand. They could have moved off the blocks slowly and experimented a little with scheduled as well as charter ops and when the time was right it would have been a far easier transition to being a regular carrier with their own aircraft, crew and support services.

Unfortunately wobbly decisions followed even wobblier management. The airline graveyard is chock full of glory hunters who tried to make a name for themselves and even more full of ones who operated ‘unsafely’. And that’s all that seems to be turning up at the RAK door, wannabe CEO’s with dubious records and crack pot theories, all trying to be the next Michael O’Leary or Richard Branson (If you don’t know these names then kindly leave the building…forever) One previous CEO has gone on the record as saying that the low cost model was a transient phase and would eventually die out in favour of the traditional full fare, full service theme. With oil passing up and down through the $100PB mark, I think this analysis was as flawed as the rest of his ideas.

I don’t know if the Pot-Meister will read this, I don’t really care if he does or not, it’s just a real travesty that so much money and effort has been laid on to get this off the ground but in reality it has amounted to squat.

You cannot run an airline with 1 aircraft, or 2, or 3 or even 4! They simply do not generate enough revenue to cover all the overheads. So, the people who write here and talk about achievements made so far are really not seeing the whole picture and unfortunately the hard work done by all the people who give a 5hit will amount to nothing unless there is a 180degree shift in the way business is conducted there.

Fact… in any JAR state or in US they’d have pulled your ticket some time ago.

I hope it works out but there’s a long hard road ahead…

My 2cents worth.

Hustle on...

Gulfstreamaviator

It is just not RAK, that has this mind set, but the whole toilet set.

Until this happens, it is all destined to fail.

You have been warned.

glf

fractional

I repeat: the problem is definitely the Managing Director and now I add all above him.
They've got no clue what aviation is all about. They've got the downtown souk shop mentality. clean and clear desk, hubbly-bubbly, loads of tea and lots of "highly paid" servants zooming around.

justwhenyouthought..

So we hear huddled around the shisha, that RAK are moving the posts, reducing the staff from 200 to 70 and concentrating on the charter market ?? Any more news on that front ?

737BBJ

If they are re-thinking their businessplan I can only say . It is never too late to make smart decisions, and if they are setting themselves up as an ACMI operator worldwide with a reduced staff, it can only go one way; upwards.

riakar

I just logged back in under my old name from when I was working here to look at what's going on. Since I was cleared out for being too expensive and the wrong colour I have concentrated on my new job outside the airline biz and put RAK down to painful experience. I have to say I am laughing my socks off at all this. Everyone who comes in with their nose up Masaads backside ends up getting fired. They treat people like animals, and KM has no regard whatsoever for safety only money - which is why he only wants Indians who are too terrified of their jobs to say anything. Unfortunately it won't be long before they stack that 757 up somewhere let's hope not too many people go with it. As for Ravi being such a great COO, is this the Ravi my friends still in the Gulf tell me has been writing begging letters to other Gulf airlines pleading to give him a job - interviewing with another UAE airline (one of the 'E's) very recently. Sounds like he's really committed to the cause !! If I were at EK or EY I'd be lobbying to get this shambles closed down - the damage to the GCAA's international reputation as a body capable of oversight would plummet if anyone knew the extent to which rules and regulations are totally flouted. And for what it's worth, I think Narges was great, yes she was loud but she sure brightened the place up along with her assistant. And I don't think the postings attributed to her on here are correct, it doesn't sound like her in my head when I read them. Maybe she got Faranak to write them for her.... I think I might write the book of RAK Airways - the story has everything, esp. funny would be the chapter about the former CEO hiring his girlfriend straight out of college into a senior position and pretending nothing was going on while bunking up in the Hamra hotel... Great stuff, unfortunately no-one would believe it wasn't fiction. Let's hope the end of all this nonsense of RAK pretending it has an airline is nigh and someone puts them out of their misery, before the accident.