Financial pressure forces RAK Airways to suspend operations
Increasing operating costs and market pressure forced RAK Airways to shut down all operations effective January 1 on Tuesday
Dubai: Mounting financial pressure forced UAE carrier, RAK Airways, to indefinitely suspend all services and operations starting January 1. The airline, based in the Northern Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, released a statement on Tuesday announcing the sudden suspension.
“The decision for suspending operations was taken following increased pressures on the carrier’s performance due to continuous market conditions, increased operating costs and the impact of the regional political instability on the overall aviation industry,” the airline said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the Ras Al Khaimah Government’s Department of Civil Aviation, who issued the announcement, told Gulf News all board members including the Chief Executive Officer were out of the country and not available for comment.
Its current network included flights from RAK International Airport to Doha, Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, Jeddah, Riyadh, Kozhikode and Kathmandu.
Will Horton, Senior Analyst at CAPA – Centre for Aviation, told Gulf News that RAK Airways’ shortfall was that “it focused on traffic to and from the UAE on thinner routes that ultimately proved too small in potential”.
This is not the first time RAK Airways has suspended operations. In 2009 it ceased operations citing the burden of the 2008/09 financial crisis only to later resume flights in 2011.
