Oman Airport seeks to have more direct services: CEO

Muscat: Oman Airports is working on various strategies to connect the Sultanate of Oman to new markets by offering direct services, which will also encourage more tourists to come to the country seamlessly, a top executive said.

Speaking to the Observer, Shaikh Aiman bin Ahmed al Hosni, CEO of Oman Airports, said, 'Currently, we have 36 airlines serving more than 80 destinations. We want to expand the list of direct flights from Muscat by assessing some new markets, which can be served by both our national airlines and foreign airlines.'

He added, 'We are seeing a big growth in the tourism sector and tourists coming to Oman and hoping to double those numbers, soon. Oman Airports is making efforts to make seamless travel and arrival for all our passengers, which include having advanced e-gates and additional check-in counters.'

The government has plans to promote Oman in Spain and other countries of Europe, besides the traditional markets of Germany and the UK. Muscat International Airport handled over 7.5 million passengers in the first seven months of this year.

The number of international passengers increased by nine per cent to 6,949,193 from 6,374,797 in 2023. At the same time, the number of domestic passengers increased by 8.3 per cent to 621,955 from 574,405 in 2023. Overall, the number of passengers using the Muscat International Airport went up from 7,571,148 in 2024 to 6,949,202 in 2023. Salalah received 827,486 passengers from 5,975 flights at the end of July 2024, compared to 750,251 passengers in 2023.