Documents for every child
Every child needs their own passport, including an infant travelling on an adult's lap, plus any visa the destination requires. Names on tickets must match the passports exactly.
Your journey · Families
Travelling with children
A small airport is an easier one to cross with a toddler and a pushchair: two buildings, short distances, and a café that never closes. Most of what will shape your day, though, is set by your airline — fares, allowances, whether the pushchair goes to the aircraft door. Here is what to sort out before you come, and what to expect once you are here.
Before you fly
Sort these out with the airline
None of these can be fixed at the airport on the day, and all of them are quick to arrange in advance.
Infant and child fares
Whether a child needs a seat, what an infant costs and what baggage each is allowed are entirely the airline's rules, and they vary a lot between carriers.
Bassinets and seating
Bassinet positions are limited and allocated by the airline in advance. Ask at the time of booking, not at check-in.
Pushchairs and car seats
Ask whether your pushchair travels to the aircraft door or is checked at the desk, and whether a car seat may be used on board. On-board use normally requires an aircraft-approved label.
Security
Screening with a child
The same screening applies to everyone, but a few things work differently when there is a child with you.
- Baby food, formula and milk are exempt from the one-litre liquids bag and may be carried in addition, in the quantities the journey needs. Staff may ask you to prove what they are.
- Medicines for a child are treated the same way — carry them with the prescription.
- Your child comes out of the pushchair, and the pushchair is folded and screened separately. Ask a member of staff for a hand if you are on your own.
- Tablets, phones and any other electronics come out into a separate tray, including the ones being used to keep a child occupied.
- Passport control is before security here, and every child has to be present at the counter in person.
In the terminal
What you will find
The Departure Terminal is compact, and the essentials are open around the clock — which matters on an early-morning departure with a small child.
Food at any hour
The Terminal Cafe in departures is open 24 hours. Bringing familiar snacks with you is still the safer plan for a fussy eater.
Prayer rooms
In both terminals, with a mosque near the Departure Terminal car park.
Free Wi-Fi
Across both buildings — worth connecting before the boarding call, not during it.
Smoke-free buildings
Smoking is confined to a designated room in each terminal, so the rest is clear air.
Duty free
Open round the clock in both terminals, including confectionery and gift items.
Nurse and police
A nurse is on duty on the field and airport police are on duty 24 hours.
Baby-changing facilities, family rooms and a children's play area are not yet mapped on this site. We are asking the airport for their exact locations and will publish them alongside the terminal maps rather than describe them from memory. Until then, ask any member of staff.
Car seats and the drive
A car seat you are not using on board travels as checked baggage, and like every other item it has to meet the airport's 90 × 75 × 60 cm acceptance limit or be repacked into an approved box at the wrapping centre. If you need a child seat for the drive from the airport, ask when you book on the Ras Al Khaimah Transport Authority's 24-hour call centre, 8001700 — do not assume one will be waiting in the car.
Unaccompanied minors
Children travelling alone
This is arranged entirely with the airline, not the airport. Carriers that accept unaccompanied minors set their own age limits, fees, forms and the identification that both the adult dropping the child off and the adult collecting them must produce. Book it directly with the airline before you make any other arrangement, and expect the adult who drops off to be required to stay in the terminal until the flight has departed.
Coming back through arrivals
The arrivals building is all on one level: passport control, the baggage belt, customs and out. Every child must be present at the passport counter, so keep the family together rather than sending one adult ahead with the documents. If you have a pushchair that went to the aircraft door, it comes back to you at the door or on the belt, depending on what your airline arranged.
Talk to someone
If something is not covered here
The Duty Officer is on the field around the clock and is the right first call on the day of travel. Anything about your ticket, your allowance or your seat belongs with your airline.
Ask your airline first
Fares, allowances, seat selection, name changes, delays, cancellations, missing bags and special assistance requests are all handled by the airline that issued your ticket. The airport cannot change them.
Times and allowances on this page are published for planning. Rules set by airlines, UAE Customs and the immigration authorities change without notice — confirm the detail that matters to your trip before you travel.