With almost all community schools in the Sultanate of Oman closing for Christmas holidays and employees keen to exhaust pending leaves of the year, outbound travel is expected to see a surge in the coming weeks.
The check-in, security, and immigration counters at the Muscat International Airport are expected to see long queues due to the holiday and year-end rush during peak evening hours.
One of the concerns raised by both inbound and outbound travellers is the absence of e-gates, which were replaced by special counters for World Cup shuttle flights.
Speaking to the Observer, airport officials said these counters are temporary arrangements for the World Cup shuttle flights, but with the tournament closing to an end, all passengers will be able to arrive and leave the airport without any hassle.
They, however, suggested that passengers should clear all traffic and visa penalties, avoid prohibited items, and must have proper documents to avoid delays at the counters.
"A delay caused by one passenger can have a double or triple effect on other passengers for no mistake of theirs," said an official.
"I had to wait for nearly two hours at the counters while returning to Muscat because the e-gate was only partially operational, and there were long queues. Also, some passengers are forced to join the normal queue for passport stamping as the e-gate refused to accept or read their fingerprints," said Ravish Sharma.
Another inbound passenger said, "Only one e-gate was operational, and the supervising staff advised me to take the queue for passport stamping as there are chances of the e-gate showing error. They were only accepting a few people at the e-gate to avoid inconvenience."
After two years of restricted travel due to the Covid pandemic, travellers worldwide are trying to make the best of winter tourism.
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