Muscat airport posts 17% rise in passengers

Passenger traffic at Muscat International Airport rose by 17 percent to nearly 6.9 million in the first 11 months of last year compared to the year-earlier period.

A total of 6.898m passengers used the airport compared to 5.901m for the same period of 2011, Oman News Agency reported. 

Both arrivals and departures increased by 17 percent, latest figures showed. 

The increase in passenger at Muscat International Airport has been attributed to the launch of new airlines, such as the Ethiopian Airline, the Bangladesh Airlines and IndiGo Airline.

Other airlines including national carrier Oman Air, Qatar Airways, Flydubai, Sri Lankan Airlines and Turkish Airlines have also added flights to the sultanate.

In terms of air cargo traffic at Muscat International airport, total unloaded and loaded freight rose by 15 percent with 103,155 tonnes lifted by the end of November 2012 compared to 89,825 tonnes in the same period in 2011. 

Passenger numbers at Salalah Airport increased by 23 percent to 577,048 in the first 11 months of 2012 compared to 470,947 passengers for the year-earlier period. 

Air cargo at Salalah Airport recorded a three percent decline to 1,368 tonnes compared to 1,404 tonnes for January to November 2011.