2024 volume
6,652 tonnes, reported as roughly 97 % above the previous year, announced in January 2025 by the Chairman of RAK DCA. This figure comes from that announcement rather than from an audited airport publication.
Development and expansion
A million passengers through a terminal built for one
RKT reached its published annual terminal capacity in 2025 and kept growing. The response is a construction programme that runs from now to 2028: a new passenger terminal, a private aviation complex, and a vertiport on the airfield. Everything on this page that has not been built is labelled as a target.
The programme in four numbers
- New terminal
- 30,000m²New terminal
- Design capacity
- 3mDesign capacity
- Private aviation complex
- Q1 2027Private aviation complex
- Vertiport sites planned
- 4Vertiport sites planned
Terminal figures as reported; dates are targets and remain subject to change.
Dated record
What has happened, and what is scheduled
Reading downwards: everything above the line has taken place and can be checked against a dated source. Everything below it is a target date published by the airport or its partners, and none of it is operating today.
On the record
The airport is inauguratedDelivered
Ras Al Khaimah International Airport opens on Digdaga Road, 18 km south of the city, as the emirate's only airport.
ActionFlight bases itself at RKTDelivered
An agreement makes the airport the operational base for aerobatic flying, ballooning and an advanced upset prevention and recovery training programme.
A based freighter airlineDelivered
Fly Vaayu, an RKT-based freighter operator flying the A320-200P2F, is reported to have obtained its UAE air operator certificate.
FedEx clearance facility opens in RAKEZDelivered
FedEx opens a customs clearance facility inside the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone for express air and deferred road shipments. It is in the emirate, not on the airport — FedEx's own announcement does not connect the two.
2024 cargo result announcedDelivered
6,652 tonnes for 2024, reported at roughly 97 % above the previous year, with 7,440 aircraft movements, up 21.3 %. Announced by the Chairman of RAK DCA rather than published by the airport.
A flight academy takes its base hereDelivered
Intercontinental Aviation Academy GCC opens registrations for its primary training base at RKT, with the first cohort announced for September 2025.
Air-taxi memorandum signedAnnounced
RAKTA, Joby Aviation and Skyports Infrastructure sign an MoU covering four vertiport sites, one of them this airport, in the presence of the Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah.
Private aviation complex agreedAnnounced
At the Dubai Airshow the airport and Falcon Executive Aviation sign an agreement for a VVIP terminal, an 8,000 m² hangar and dedicated apron, with construction set at about fifteen months.
A million passengersDelivered
1,000,303 passengers, 51 % above 2024, on 16 scheduled international destinations. The first time the airport has passed a million in a calendar year.
Targets, not commitments
Vertiport phase one beginsTargeted
Construction of the first vertiport phase is targeted to start, covering site identification, design and development across the four announced locations.
Falcon complex target openingTargeted
A 1,500 m² VVIP terminal, an 8,000 m² hangar and about 9,000 m² of apron, with a helipad and space allocated for eVTOL operations.
Air-taxi service targetedTargeted
The target date for the emirate's first air-taxi service. It depends on an eVTOL type certificate and a UAE commercial operating approval, neither of which exists yet.
Wynn Al Marjan Island reported openingTargeted
Not an airport project, but the single largest change to demand in the emirate: a 1,530-room integrated resort about fifteen minutes from the runway.
New passenger terminal targetedTargeted
Roughly 30,000 m² with a design capacity of three million passengers a year, advanced baggage handling, e-gates and upgraded customs and passport control.
New passenger terminal
Thirty thousand square metres, targeted for 2028
The new terminal is the centre of the programme. It is reported at roughly 30,000 m² with a design capacity of three million passengers a year — three times the traffic the airport handled in 2025.
Targeted 2028
- Roughly 30,000 m² of terminal floor area, under construction
- Design capacity of three million passengers a year
- An advanced baggage handling system
- E-gates at passport control
- Upgraded customs and passport control halls
The terminal figures come from reporting rather than from a published airport master plan. Treat the area, the capacity and the 2028 date as indicative until the airport confirms them in writing. The existing departure and arrival terminals continue to operate throughout.
Private aviation complex
Falcon Executive Aviation, targeted for the first quarter of 2027
An agreement signed at the Dubai Airshow in November 2025 covers a dedicated private aviation complex on the field, developed with Falcon Executive Aviation, part of Alex Group Investment. Construction is set at about fifteen months.
Under way
- A Royal lounge and four VVIP lounges
- A hangar sized for ultra-long-range jets, with maintenance capability
- A dedicated helipad and space allocated for eVTOL operations
- LEED Gold target, 35 % of energy offset by solar, fully electric ground support equipment
- SAF capability and net-zero operational emissions as a stated target
- VVIP terminal
- 1 500m²
- Multi-purpose hangar
- 8 000m²
- Apron and parking
- 9 000m²
- Target opening
- Q1 2027
The complex is under construction and is not open. Business aviation at RKT today is handled from the existing FBO in the passenger terminal and by the second licensed handler on the field.
Vertiports and air taxi
Four sites, phase one from 2026
RAKTA, Joby Aviation and Skyports Infrastructure signed a memorandum of understanding on 29 September 2025 to design, develop and operate the emirate's first air-taxi network. One of the four initial vertiport sites is this airport.
Al Marjan IslandJebel JaisAl HamraRas Al Khaimah International Airport
- Vertiports designed for eVTOL aircraft and conventional helicopters alike
- Phase one construction from early 2026, with service targeted for 2027
- The Joby aircraft carries a pilot and four passengers at up to 321 km/h, all-electric
Targeted
Planned, and subject to certification. No eVTOL type certificate and no UAE commercial air-taxi operating approval exists yet. Nothing on this programme is bookable, and every date attached to it is a target.
Cargo
Growth rate, not tonnage
The freight side has grown quickly from a small base. We publish the growth and the capability, and we do not publish numbers we cannot source.
Aircraft movements
7,440 movements in 2024, reported up 21.3 % year on year in the same announcement.
Stated strategy
Increasing transshipment freight through the road feeder network to the rest of the emirates, rather than competing on absolute volume.
What is not announced
There is no confirmed new cargo terminal, no published master-plan tonnage target and no bonded warehouse project at the airport. If you have read otherwise, it did not come from us.
Land
Over a million square metres, undeveloped
The airport holds more than 1,000,000 m² earmarked for MRO and aviation industry, with free-zone potential. That land, rather than the terminal, is what most industrial enquiries are actually about.
- MRO and aviation industry plots, with free-zone potential
- Airside and landside office space in the existing buildings
- Retail space in three formats — existing shop areas, kiosk pitches and areas primed for custom build-out
- New companies also need an activity licence from the RAK Department of Civil Aviation
Why now
What the capacity is being built for
Tourism at scale
The emirate hosted 1.35 million overnight guests in 2025, and continues to add hotel inventory along the coast.
Wynn Al Marjan Island
Reported at USD 5.1–5.7 billion, 1,530 rooms and a 70-storey tower, with an opening reported for September 2027 — roughly fifteen minutes from the runway.
A based carrier that keeps adding routes
Sixteen scheduled international destinations in 2025, up 14 % on the year before, with flights up 37 %.
Resort figures and opening dates are the developer's, reported in trade and general press. They are included because they explain the airport's timeline, not because the airport controls them.
What this page does not tell you
This page deliberately omits: any 2025 or 2026 cargo tonnage; any new cargo terminal announcement; any air-taxi service presented as bookable; and any construction budget for the terminal. None of the four is publicly confirmed.