Oct. 15--RAK Airways will start flying to Najaf in Iraq and Dammam, Saudi Arabia, early next month, the carrier the carrier told Khaleej Times.
The airline, which is celebrating its third anniversary, extended discounted vouchers to all the well-wishers to the airline's 12 destinations, encouraging travel enthusiasts to fly with RAK Airways during a two-day celebrations last week.
"I would personally like to thank our well-wishers for their loyalty and support to the airline. Even as we enter our third year we would like to announce that we will be opening two more destinations shortly -- Dammam and Najaf," Shaikh Salem bin Sultan Al Qasimi, chairman of the RAK Department of Civil Aviation, and vice-chairman of RAK Airways, said. While Dammam will be the carrier's third destination in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Najaf will be its first entry into Iraq. RAK Airways is the only full service carrier from Northern Emirates of the UAE and the airline has seen a boost of 40 per cent increase in its passenger strength over the first half of 2013. In 2012 the airline flew 300,000 passengers.
All nine routes have done very well and during the first half of 2013, the airline increased its frequency to Dhaka, Peshawar and Lahore, from two weekly flights to three, to meet the growing demand into these destinations. Number of weekly flights to Jeddah increased from seven to ten.
Earlier this year, RAK Airways announced its plan to touch 40 international destinations by 2015 and add new aircraft in 2013 to support its expansion plan.
The airline said all options are open for fleet expansion and the airline will also make announcement for new aircraft soon. The carrier's both aircraft are Airbus A320.
Copyright 2013 - Khaleej Times, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
