PPRuNe Forums - RAK Airways Threads Merged

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Ater my meeting with the Crown Prince

One day in fact, Capt Potty fires the Turk, or the Turk is resigned, as it is being told, or the Turk ignored the 10 major items on the GCAA audit, or Capt Potty refused to acknowledge the audit findings, or his brother disowned him.

The german who was resigned a year ago is now back in the driving seat...the Captains justification for this about face " I misunderstood your previous incompetence".

What goes around comes around, even in Dana.

RAK with the same Commander in Chief, is soon due for another change of ADC.

glf

RAK Airways no longer in service: Sheikh Saud

In the press today

Quote:

RAK Airways no longer in service: Sheikh Saud

RAK Airways is no longer in service, according to Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah .

In an exclusive interview with Emirates Business, Sheikh Saud said: "RAK Airways is no longer in service. To the best of my knowledge, RAK Airways is working on a plan regarding what will happen now."

He said the decision regarding the airline is a purely commercial matter. "In my opinion, the commercial benefits were not there and there was no point keeping it [RAK Airways] in business."

Sheikh Saud said Ras Al Khaimah is coping well with the ongoing global crisis, and pointed out that projects are on schedule and efforts have ensured that the flow of visitors has remained steady.

"We had to stand beside many businesses in the emirate to let them know we are involved in this process. The number of tourists coming to Ras Al Khaimah remains steady, despite the difficult times. And, several luxury hotels are on schedule to open in time. Our industrial projects are going well."

Sheikh Saud said Ras Al Khaimah has concentrated on becoming a "base for a range of industries".

Saqr Port has expanded 10 times in terms of trade volume. A port on the Creek has been set up, apart from Thara and Holeila ports and work is in progress on Mina Al Arab near Al Hamra.

He also pointed to tourism as a key driver of growth. "We have devoted a great deal of attention to tourism in recent years to make the most of the emirate's natural resources."

Sheikh Saud referred to the major projects that will improve the lifestyle option. Gateway City project will house 200,000 and Bab El Bahar, a Dh1.2 billion 280-hectare reclaimed project on Marjan Island, will be completed in the second quarter of 2010.

Asked about Virgin Galactic's interest in Ras Al Khaimah, Sheikh Saud said he welcomed them but that there is no agreement with Virgin until now.

On power supply, the Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler said the issue has gone to the UAE Federal National Council, which has set up a committee to discuss the issue with the Federal Electricity and Water Authority and that steps are being taken to find a solution.

Source

Also in the news today!

Quote:

RAK Airways 'in no way closing' - new CEO

The new CEO of troubled carrier RAK Airways said on Sunday the airline was in “no way closing” following reports its operations and services had stopped.

Speaking exclusively to Arabian Business, Kristian Kirchheiner said the carrier was still operating charter flights after dropping scheduled services in late 2008.

RAK Airways’ chairman Sheikh Omar bin Saqr Al Qasimi was quoted earlier on Sunday by Business 24/7 as saying that scheduled flights had been suspended for commercial reasons. He also said there was no point keeping the airline in business, according to the newspaper.

Related: Troubled airline 'no longer in service' - report
Story continues below ↓
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But Kirchheiner, who joined RAK Airways on May 18, said that while commercial services have been suspended he was exploring all opportunities for the airline going forward.

“We are working on a plan for the future, which I can’t really disclose at this point in time, so the company is in no way closing,” he said.

“My job is to explore the possibilities for the company, and obviously we have looked at the positives and also the constraints. This situation is difficult but we will come up with a proposal and a plan within a month’s time.”

Kirchheiner declined to comment on what proposals were being considered for the airline, which suspended commercial flights in response to the financial crisis.

While scheduled services have been dropped, RAK Airways still operates charter flights on a wet lease basis to Hewa Bora Airlines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The service is operated from Kinshasa to Paris, Brussels and Johannesburg, according to Kirchheiner.

A wet lease involves one airline providing a plane, all crew, maintenance and insurance to another.

The airline was established in 2006 to support Ras Al Khaimah’s economic development, according to its website.

Someone's been flipping toggle switches...

what the heck is going on ???

nothing but the usual smoke and mirrors !

Who's steering the ship ? again nobody knows!

If you rearrange the pieces often enough, will they eventually fall into some sort of usable shape ?? Maybe !

It was an interesting statement to make that the airline "suspended commercial flights in response to the financial crisis" Really???

What a convenient, one size fits all excuse for the company having lousey management.

No disrespect to the current CEO, it was not a mess of his making but the company has been poorly run from day one. Countless CEO's have come and gone and for various reasons, none have been able to make it work.

I notice the distinct abscence of Potty's name or his dubious credentials. Perhaps he has fallen out of favour with the Sheikhs for wasting so much of their money. The airline was apparently started to support Ras Al Khaimah's economic developement but that is not what seems to be happening.

It's promising at least that while this ACMI is ongoing, someone else is paying the bills and mitigating the losses somewhat. If they can take on more aircraft it might be a business worth looking at going forward. Plenty of aircraft out there at good rates and plenty of opportunity for this type of ops as many airlines dash to reduce operating costs, reduce fleets sizes and put growth on hold. ACMI allows the flexibility to call in support for the peak period and for someone like Rak Airways it would shield them from the main variable cost; the fuel. Pure ACMI requires far less staff too.

But what's the alternative? Look at the options... A loco? Unlikely, there is already one, a good one with a great business model and reputation, right on their doorstep. And another one coming this summer. The surrounding catchment area is too sparse to support a Rak based loco.

Charter? Maybe... but Rak, as a place, is a little too quiet to become a mass tourist attraction, there isn't really anything to do there. Apart from the luxury hotels there needs to be more on offer. Some hard pitching and creative marketing would be required to entice travel agents enough to bite and do it regularily. The financial crisis would have a negative impact on this strategy so some very competetive pricing would be required. It might be possible if the hotels were struggling, to hammer them down and come up with a good package of flights and accomm. The Ryanair marketing strategy could be used by selling RAK as Dubai but again, the prices would have to be good enough to offset the bother of being at least 1hr drive from Dubai, it might work if given some time and good marketing.

A scheduled, full service, 2 class? Unlikely that this would work. Most savvy business class pax would go for EK. Either that or the pricing would have to be very keen to attract them. Some extra services to get people to Dubai such as limos or busses would be needed as RAK airport is a very unattractive location. Even if you went all 'Y' class, where is the market? what routes would be flown? You would have to have a longer reach than Air Arabia so as not to compete with them.

Regardless, you cannot make money as an airline with one aircraft.

It's going to be interesting to see how this pans out...

Good luck to the new CEO.

Hustle On :ok:

RAK has been flushed down the pan.

A Quote by the Adviser to the Crown Prince, Dr Potty himself: " I managed to squeeze 300,000,000 US$ from the Investment Authority before they noticed."
Dr Potty is famous as the only CEO in history who pays for his own private calls on his company mobile phone. He is proud to announce that the department responsable for deducting these calls is in itself a profit centre.

His management system is second to none, as this extract from the previous post confirms: This has worked efficiently so far, but as new entities develop, the “system” may need a second breath, an executive admits. “Having one man making decisions has advantages, but he can’t take care of everything.”

“I delegate everything and ask the people to do it for me. I am like a maestro with an orchestra who is playing,” he said.

The founder of RAK Ceramics indirectly agrees: “I believe in systems and in corporate governance, not only in people. If tomorrow I disappear, the system and the company has to continue.”

One day these words will come back to haunt him.

Please turn off the light when leaving the building, leave the key at the airport info desk.

RAK RIP.

glf

Well at least we know what he does in his spare time...self pens newspaper articles proclaiming his glorious achievements, I'm telling ya, he must be related to Kim Jong Il.

I heard recently taht the RAK crew and their aircraft are down in the arseholio of Africa on an ACMI for some carrier down there or has that finished?

Last out flush the potty :}

Hustle on :ok:

Thanks for the entertaining thread.

Entertaining for sure, down through the years the RAK Airways thread has been a source of constant amusement for those on the outside looking in due to the zaney antics of the infamous Dr.Potty, the great toilet mogul of the M.East and dare I say...The World!

Unfortunately it was not so funny for those who worked there.

A textbook example of how to run an airline...into the sand.

Looks like the original thread has been removed, probably due to inactivity but GulfStreamAV8R has revived it. Seems there are still a few folks out there who like to take pot shots at ole doc potty.

Hustle On :ok:

The Missing RAK info is here

Latest is the 757 goes back to the leasor in November and Sheik S has ordered the airline to re-close then (It was shut down earlier in the year by the GCAA but has since re started)! Sorry to bring bad news to those few left. Mind you they have a habit of changing their minds & the new CEO has other ideas.

MOD please tie up with existing RAK thread.

my work is done here..................................

glf

They have a B757 in CDG, I've been seeing it for 2 weeks now...

Asialonghaul - Wrong !

CDG based 757? I thought the only ones of those at Roissy were belonging to Eagle Aviation...

Is Scottish Ian, Senior Ops position, still with RAK? I haven't been able to contact him for ages...................

If he is cud someone ask him to PM me please.

I think he departed RAK during one of the late '08 culls.............
went to work for a Kuwait company until earlier this year, now I'm not sure.
pm me for email address

Wow that all worked quickly ........within 5 minutes I was chatting to the rotund one on the phone!!

that does not narrow the field very much...

we are all retund, some are more retunda than most.

glad you have his number, given up getting him to ring me...

glf

I belive he has left RAK. But not sure where he is at present.