Exciting Plans Developing at the Fujairah International Airport

Today’s Operation at FIA

Dr Khaled Almazroui gave the opening address at the Air Center Conference 2011 in Fujairah (13-14 April) on the theme, ‘The Evolution of the Fujairah International Airport’.

In outlining the development of the Fujairah International Airport (FIA) he began by setting out the historical context.

Dr Khaled, like many speakers to follow, highlighted Fujairah’s strategic location, outside the bottleneck of the Strait of Hormuz. He mentioned that Fujairah’s advantageous location has been recently bolstered by the new oil pipeline that will bring a huge percentage of the UAE’s oil through Fujairah.

Advantage Fujairah

Other assets of the Fujairah International Airport include:

• Clear Skies
• Favourable Weather
• Excellent visibility
• Open 365 days

Upgrading Facilities

The Fujairah International Airport has been developed in recent years to achieve these goals:

• It is open 24 hours of the day
• It has all the facilities of a modern airport

• It can accommodate all aircraft types

• The airport leadership has developed the airport to meet all security and regulation requirements

Cargo and Passengers

Currently the FIA is chiefly a cargo airport with this component representing 90% of the airport’s work and the flow of passengers representing 10%.

Dr Khaled said that the FIA is aiming at changing the airport’s role so that the flow of passengers represents 40% of the airport’s business and cargo represents 60%.

Aircraft Movements

There are on average 55 aircraft coming in or out of the airport each day and sometimes this number increases to 70 per day (see picture below indicating the growth over the years).

35-40 of these are commercial flights and the rest are the activities of the Fujairah Aviation Academy.

Increasing Cargo

The FIA is working to increase the cargo flow through the airport but it is challenged by these factors:

• An uneven annual increase in cargo tonnage.
• Balancing security and regulatory requirements against other important factors such as the speed of operation and flexibility of movement.
• Change management as prescribed by policies, procedures and manuals: Dr Khaled noted the excellent work of his team with emergency drills and the implementation of other procedures making Fujairah one of the best airports in the region on many counts.
• The increasing numbers of aircraft parked for maintenance.

Towards 2025

The General Manager said that he and his team are working intentionally toward goals that have timelines extending to the year 2025.

In terms of aircraft movements the airport is ahead of the forecast as set out in the master plan.

Specific Plans Include:

• A new passenger terminal
• Expanding the apron of aircraft parking and creating a bigger parking space
• Further training for fire fighting and other safety procedures
• Additional maintenance workshops and facilities
• Extending the runway to 1,200 metres
• Expanding to accommodate 68 airline offices (see picture below)

• Developing a dedicated training room
• A new Maintenance, Repair and Outfitting (MRO) Hangar will be ready in a few months (see picture below)

• Establishing a new Luxury Plane Hangar (see picture below)

• A new Executive Aviation Terminal (see picture below) has been completed offering the latest technology and comfort. Dr Khaled mentioned that the UAE had become either first or second country in the world in terms of the movement of business jets. In this regard, FIA wants to capture a percentage of the market with flights to Fujairah and technical flights.

• New commercial hangars (see pictures below). In all, the airport is building 12 new hangars of different sizes. 80% of the new hangar space has been reserved and this will be available within three months.

Geoff Pound

This article is also posted in the Fujairah in Focus—Facebook Page.