Aurora spots a new dawn rising in Fujairah

Aurora Aviation has high hopes for its new FBO in one of the UAE’s quietest emirates.

The Swiss aviation services company has signed a memorandum of understanding with Fujairah International Airport to take over its executive aviation terminal and ground handling services.

Ammar Kutait, CEO of Aurora Aviation, said despite being small, Fujairah had “huge potential” to attract business jet operators looking for alternative lower-cost parking and other services than from busier airports in the region such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai or Jeddah.

“In much of the Middle East, parking is scarce and expensive. We can offer the ability to, for example, drop a VVIP passenger in Dubai and then park at Fujairah for three days before returning to pick him up,” he said. “Availability of fuel also makes Fujairah attractive as a technical stop.”

Aurora is also “close to announcing” a ground handling operation and executive terminal at another undisclosed, non-Middle Eastern airport.

The 45 minute to one hour drive across the new road from Fujairah to Dubai is seen as a real boon for the aviation company – but it is development closer to home that is really exciting the new FBO team.

The development is a land reclamation project just outside Fujairah city, which has been earmarked for oil storage and oil product distribution.

Aurora is part of the same company, Aurora Progress, which is working with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) for the development of a Fujairah oil and product storage facility. This will have a total capacity of 641,000 cubic meters of storage across 20 tanks, handling fuel oils, gasolines, naphthas, and middle distillates. Services will include tank-to-tank blending, inline blending into ship, bulk breaking and bulk aggregating. The storage facility will help meet the growing demand in the developing trading hub of Fujairah.

“Fujairah is becoming a major world trading point for oil products in the same way that Singapore and Rotterdam are,” said Kutait. “It is the third largest hub in the world but there was a shortage of storage. Now that has changed.”

Trading hubs like this have a record for requiring business aviation support. Urgent need for engineers, parts, crew or for senior management/investor activities mean private aviation facilities are busy.

Aurora moved into supply of jet fuel for the aviation retail markets “That’s really why we entered the aviation business. One thing led to another; we found that we could service customers no matter who they are,” explained Kutait.

“We didn’t want to be just another flight support company. We started looking at Fujairah. The whole emirate has been ‘unseen’. But Abu Dhabi is putting in a pipeline, Saudi Arabia is interested and everyone is looking at Fujairah.

“The airport is doing a good job in marketing the advantages. There are delays at Dubai because it is so busy. As Fujairah, customs and immigration is quick. We had our first private jet land and it was very quick. We had a crew there and it all went very smoothly.

“We think technical stops will be a big thing for Fujairah too. There could be more aircraft being based at Fujairah in the future. For us it is a small part of what we are doing, but there are prospects.”