Clearance · RKT / OMRK

Permits, slots and crew clearance

What has to be in place before the aircraft moves, in the order a dispatcher would work through it. Landing permission is issued by RAK Department of Civil Aviation through the airport Duty Officer; the airport does not issue overflight clearance.

Lead time

The airport has never published a lead time for landing permission, so this page will not invent one. Send the request as early as you can and ask the Duty Officer to confirm the turnaround when you submit it.

+971 50 487 2704

Duty Officer

The sequence

Work down. Steps one to four apply to every movement; the rest depend on what you are doing on the ground.

01
Confirm the aircraft is acceptable
The permission request has to state that the aircraft carries TCAS and ACAS, and that it is ban-free both for the UAE and for RKT. Sort this before you write anything else.
02
Send the landing permission request to the Duty Officer
By SITA, email or fax, with the thirteen items listed below. The Duty Officer forwards it to RAK Department of Civil Aviation for approval and returns a landing permit number to you.
03
Agree the movement times with the airport
RKT is not slot-bid. Arrival and departure windows are agreed directly with the airport. If you need an airway slot, the flight operations team will assist with the CTOT — that is a different thing from an airport slot.
04
File the flight plan at the briefing office
All departing traffic must file at the AIS/MET briefing office, which is open continuously.
05
Arrange crew clearance and the general declaration
Ground Services prepares the general declaration from crew identity card particulars and presents it to Immigration. The rules below are unforgiving about corrections and stamps.
06
Request passes for anyone meeting the aircraft
Entry passes, crew passes, vehicle passes and photography passes all go through the Public Relations Office, or through the Duty Officer outside PRO hours.
07
Get an airside driving permit if your people will drive
Nobody drives airside without a current permit, and it must be carried and produced on request.

Landing permission — what the request must contain

Thirteen items, in a single message to the Duty Officer. Missing one of them is the usual cause of delay.

01Name of operator
02Nationality of operator
03Aircraft type
04Registration
05Call sign
06Crew details
07Flight schedule — date, STD and STA, ETA and ETD. Long-term parking must state the bay availability requirement
08Purpose of flight
09Receiving party
10Confirmation that the aircraft is equipped with TCAS and ACAS
11Confirmation that the aircraft is ban-free for the UAE and for RKT
12A statement regarding arms, military cargo, photographic equipment and similar
13Mode of payment

Duty Officer receives the request, forwards it to RAK Department of Civil Aviation for approval, and issues the landing permit number to the operator.

Prior permission (PPR)

Unconfirmed

The airport has previously published a PPR requirement for movements between 2200 and 0800 local, and at any time for instrument approach training, circuit details and qualifying cross-country flights. The current eAIP does not carry that requirement and instead directs training flights to check OMRK NOTAMs for prior-permission requirements. The two have not been reconciled, so treat PPR as unconfirmed and call the coordination line before planning a night arrival or a training detail.

PPR and student flights: +971 7 207 5208

Slots

No IATA slot coordination level has ever been published for RKT and this page will not state one. In practice arrival and departure times are agreed directly with the airport rather than bid for. The word does not appear in the OMRK section of the eAIP at all.

Insurance

UAE minimum liability insurance for passengers, baggage, cargo and third parties applies to all civil-registered aircraft, carriers and operators operating within UAE territory, under GCAA Information Bulletin 06/2010 of 21 January 2010. Confirm with the GCAA that this remains the current instrument.

Crew immigration and the general declaration

Reproduced close to the airport's own wording, because the details are what get flights held.

Departure: all operating crew must be physically present at the airport and hand over their identity card with the flight details.
Ground Services prepares the general declaration from the identity card particulars.
The GD receives the airport operational stamp and is presented to Immigration together with the arrival GD showing the UAE entry stamp.
Arrival: crew hand over the arrival GD and identity cards for crew clearance.
No corrections, alterations or overwriting on the GD.
An exit stamp from the Immigration Department of the origin station must be on the GD.
If the flight originates from a military airport with no immigration authorities, the stamp of the Operations Department of the origin station must be affixed instead.
Crew must carry a valid company identity card at all times.
The GD must show the correct routing and dates.
All crew must complete immigration together. If a crew member stays back or arrives early, give the details in advance so airport passes can be arranged.

Crew passes

A crew pass is issued against the general declaration. Crew must carry a valid GD with the entry stamp from the day of arrival until the seventh day, and the pass can be extended. A passport copy is required.

Public Relations Office hours

Sunday to Thursday 0800–2300, Saturday 0800–1400, closed on Fridays and public holidays. Outside those hours apply to the Duty Officer — Airport Ground Services has authority to issue crew passes.

Passes issued by the Public Relations Office

Eight pass types are issued. The three that matter most to a visiting operator are below; the office issues the rest as well.

Temporary entry pass

Official company letter with management signature and seal; clear copy of passport and visa; clear copy of Emirates ID; an original passport-size photo; the temporary pass application form; the company registration form.

Vehicle pass

Official company letter; vehicle registration, original and copy; UAE driving licence, original and copy; driver passport and visa copy. Temporary and permanent passes also need a clear copy of the Emirates ID.

Visitor and photography pass

Official letter; passport photocopy with the visa page; passport-size photo; temporary pass application. If a camera is being brought in, add its type, model, brand and serial number.

Airside driving permit

Required before anyone from your side drives a vehicle or operates equipment airside.

Company letter, which must state the method of payment
One passport-size photo
Photocopy of a valid UAE or GCC driving licence, or a valid airport driving licence issued by the Police
Photocopy of any existing airside driving permit airport pass, for renewals
Completed airside driving permit application form

Holder obligations

Carry the current permit at all times when operating a vehicle or equipment airside, and present it to the Department of Civil Aviation, Airport Police or apron staff on request.
The company is responsible for the public licensing of its own staff.
Training and qualification on specific equipment must be certified by the company and submitted to Apron Services in advance.
Return the permit, unprompted, as soon as the job no longer involves driving.
Renewal before expiry is the holder's responsibility.

Two operator responsibilities that are easy to miss

Removal of a disabled aircraft is the responsibility of the aircraft operator. The airport declares no recovery capability of its own.

There are no noise restrictions at RKT, so there is nothing to apply for on that front — but the runway maintenance window every Tuesday 0500–0800 UTC is real and is not a NOTAM surprise.

Who to contact

Duty Officer — landing permission: +971 50 487 2704 +971 7 207 5285 +971 7 207 5275 handling@rakairport.com
PPR, student flights and ATC coordination: +971 7 207 5208
Crew passes after PRO hours: +971 7 244 8090
Public Relations Office — passes: +971 7 207 5200 pr@rakdca.gov.ae
Apron Services: +971 50 627 6205 +971 7 207 5264
Customs: +971 7 207 5609
Immigration: +971 7 244 8111
RAK Department of Civil Aviation: +971 7 244 9111
General Civil Aviation Authority: +971 4 211 1777

What is not published yet

The items below are genuinely unpublished rather than withheld. The operations desk will answer them for a specific flight.

No lead time has ever been published for landing permission.
No fee or processing time is published for any pass type, including the airside driving permit.
The night PPR requirement is carried by the airport but not by the current eAIP, and has not been reconciled.

Planning reference only

This page is compiled from the UAE eAIP entry for OMRK and from the airport's own publications. It is not an operational source. The current UAE AIP and the NOTAMs in force are the authority for every figure shown — check both before you file.

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