Looking Forward

Ras Al Khaimah Airport is expanding its cargo facilities. But can CEO Michelle Solimon fill it with freight?

CEO Michelle Solimon on the Ras Al Khaimah tarmac

Walk around Ras Al Khaimah Airport with CEO Michelle Solimon and it becomes clear she is different from all the others working there. She is six feet tall, blonde and from a small town in Montana, USA. The male employees who flock to greet her are shorter, darkened from the tarmac sun and
almost always Arab. They are happy to see her and you can tell they want her to feel welcome. But all the Arab hospitality in the world cannot prevent Solimon from standing out.

And perhaps that is just why the powers that be in Ras Al Khaimah have hired her -to make their airport stand out. Solimon began her career as an officer in the US Airforce where she earned her MBA; and, after being stationed in the South Australian town of Woomera, moved on to work for Sydney Airport Corporation. While in Sydney, she moved from IT to systems development to business development to Freight Manager. And, since arriving in Ras Al Khaimah in 2007, she is now applying this experience to transform the sleepy airport into a hub suitable for the emirate’s ambitious plans.

“The airport has been here for 30 years, but it has only been in the last two years that the board and the emirate have been concentrating on bringing up its profile and really putting in those investments,” says Solimon. “People who have maybe looked at Ras Al Khaimah in the past or only know a little bit about it haven’t seen what is happening now.”

The government of Ras Al Khaimah certainly has a lot happening. Capitalising on its location and a booming region, its development plan includes becoming a major financial, real estate, industry and transportation centre. On the logistics side, the government is pumping billions of dollar into ports, roads and, of course, the airport.

Solimon is overseeing a 20-year master plan for Ras Al Khaimah, which includes a new arrivals terminal, general aviation area and cargo bays.

On the passenger side, the new 3,000 sq metres for arrivals will be able to handle two arrivals per hour. When this is ready in the next few weeks, the current 2,600 sq metre arrivals and departures terminal will then take care of only departures. This capacity will help cater to home-based carrier Ras Al Khaimah Airways, which is looking to increase its business.

“RAK Airways is obviously the biggest business here at the moment,” says Solimon. “They’re doing Calicut, India, daily and every other day they go to either Dhaka or Chittagong. They’re operating with one Boeing 757-200 at the moment, but they have expansion plans over time.”

On the cargo side, they are building a new 1,855 sq metre cargo terminal, nearly tripling the existing space dedicated to freight. This terminal will have a 1,380 sq metre manoeuvering and staging area linked to Ras Al Khaimah’s arterial road network. “The new terminal features state-of-the-art handling equipment, comprehensive air cargo security, loading docks, electronic weighing equipment and a professional management and operations team,” boasts the promotional power point Solimon’s team presents to potential clients.

While the airport currently handles only around 15,000 tonnes of cargo per annum, Solimon insists that is about to change. “This new facility will have the capacity to handle somewhere between 300,000 and 350,000 tonnes per annum, which is roughly about the same as Sydney Airport,” she says.

But they cannot rely on Ras Al Khaimah Airways for this throughput. “RAK Airways is really focusing on their passenger services,” says Solimon. “They don’t have any plans to buy wide-bodied aircraft or anything like that.”

So, while they currently have playerssuch as Bin Majid, DHL, E-Freight, Sky Gate, Ukranian Cargo Airways and Volga Dnepr as clients, Solimon’s team is out courting cargo operators to come set up shop.

“There’s a lot of opportunity now to build custom freight facilities, and on the other side we are looking at developing additional freight facilities ourselves, just to generate business,” she says.

“The opportunity for any cargo company to come in and build their own facilities is there now,” she adds. “Our own facilities should be finished by the end of 2009, early 2010.”

“The opportunity for any cargo company to come in and build their own facilities is there now,” she adds. “Our own facilities should be finished by the end of 2009, early 2010.”

This argument, however, is unlikely to convince any other big UAE airlines to bring over their cargo. “The thing about these airlines is they support their home base,” says Solimon. “Emirates is about Dubai and Etihad is about Abu Dhabi.”

But she insists that’s not a problem. “This actually creates opportunity for us, because the other customers at those airports are the ones that we would be targeting to come to Ras Al Khaimah. There’s a lot of opportunity for airlines to come in right now and they can have really special personalised customer service from RAK Airport.”

“I think we are finding a niche in the market,” she continues. “A lot of the bigger airports place a heavy emphasis on their home-based carriers, while I think that we have the opportunity to service those customers who do not have a home base and make them feel like this is their home base.”

Why would a cargo carrier come to Ras Al Khaimah? “Because it is very uncongested,” says Solimon. “Because they can have opportunities here for very reasonable prices. They can invest in their own facilities and we are just so well-linked to the rest of the emirates. Doing business in Ras Al Khaimah is very, very easy. The government is very pro-business and pro-development.”

But they still have to convince potential clients. “The challenges are gaining exposure for Ras Al Khaimah, making sure people know what we have; doing additional expansion to make people comfortable that we have the capacity to handle them long term; and the third thing is investment in our facilities,” she says.

Solimon will have to wait and see if international carriers are buying her arguments. “The airlines are currently making their networking decisions on where they are flying to,” she explains. “The decisions have already been made for Northern Winter 2008, so we’re really working on getting them for Northern Summer 2009, which gets announced in April.”