RAK Airport's systems from Arinc go live today

The 10-year contract was to implement multiple airport systems at the UAE’s northern emirate airport. The project involved the design, supply and installation of Arinc’s core suite of airport passenger processing solutions, as well as advanced airport operational systems, including a state-of-the-art vMUSE Common Use Passenger Processing Solution (CUPPS), AirVue Flight Information Display System (FIDS) and Arinc’s latest generation Airport Operational Database (AODB) AirDB 7 system.
Speaking at the commissioning of the new systems today Sheikh Salem Bin Sultan Al Qassimi, chairman of RAK Airport and the department of civil aviation, (pictured left) said: “RAK International Airport’s strategic vision is tied into the larger vision of the emirate of growing tourism, trade and commerce. The growth and progress of Ras Al Khaimah is intrinsically linked to the growth of the airport.
“We have continuously delivered on all of our promises for this, year including the current expansion phase which is already seeing the airport receiving a steadily increasing number of passengers. We are confident that the Arinc systems which have gone live today will make us a hi-tech, efficient and integrated airport. We are already pioneering several firsts and ARINC is the right partner who has embraced the concept of taking the airport out into the wider Ras Al Khaimah, the resorts, hotels and the city.”
Sheikh Salem was joined at the formal launch by Tony Lynch, Arinc’s regional director, Middle East & Africa and Andrew Gower, CEO of RAK Airport.
The platform utilises virtualisation technology and because of its scalability it will enable the airport to grow its passenger processing capability and introduce additional leading edge technologies such as remote check-in and bag drop solutions.
The installation of VMuse/CUPPS, L-DCS, AirVue (FIDS), AirDB (AODB), InfoHub and Multi-Channel at the airport, in what will be the first off-site hotel check-in and bag drop in the region to be operational within the next few months, will also equip the airport with future intelligence that will change the way in which people use it today.
Lynch explained: “The vMUSE platform supports legacy CUTE Airline applications as well as next generation CUPPS applications giving RAK Airport the ability to support all current and future Airline applications which comply to IATA standards. AirVue FIDS allows RAK Airport to provide real-time flight information to passengers blended with rich multimedia content such as promotional videos and live TV streaming.
“The AirDB 7 implementation in RAK is the first global implementation of Arinc’s next generation AODB which gives RAK Airport the ability to plan and track operational data and enhance automation of data feeds to key operational teams across the airport.
“These technologies will enable the airport to achieve its goal of being a fully automated, integrated airport with previously manual processes such as generating invoices and charge notes to their customers already implemented out of the box. The ARINC core infrastructure deployed in RAK Airport is a state of the art implementation that we believe will greatly enhance the efficiency, stability and scalability of operations at the airport,” Lynch said.

PICTURED:  Sheikh Salem Bin Sultan Al Qasimi chairman of RAK International Airport and Tony Lynch regional director Middle East & Africa Arinc at the implementation of its airport systems. Also seen are: extreme left, Mohammed Qazi commercial director RAK International Airport and (centre) Andrew Gower CEO RAK International Airport.