Muscat: Indians dominated the number of international passengers using all airports in the Sultanate with 113,213 departures and 88,579 arrivals in the first five months of 2025, according to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) report on tourism.

While 2,478,387 passengers used 17,729 international flights, 382,577 passengers used 2,882 international flights.

It may be noted that the Sultanate of Oman is witnessing a significant drop in the number of expatriate workforce from Bangladesh and generally from the subcontinent, according to NCSI. The number of Indian expatriates increased marginally from 506,630 to 508,386.

They were followed by Omanis with 57,104 departures and 55,482 arrivals, Pakistanis with 26,529 departures and 21,628 arrivals, Bangladeshis with 26,817 departures and 17,942 arrivals, Egyptians with 14,669 departures and 10,606 arrivals, and Iranians with 10,155 departures and 10,196 arrivals.

There was a drop of 28.8 percent in the number of Pakistani nationals arriving on international flights during the period.

The number of expatriate workers from Bangladesh dropped by 637,152 to 621,048 in June 2025, compared to last year, while the Sri Lankan expatriate workers in the Sultanate of Oman have dropped from 24,156 in 2024 to 22,440 during the same period.

Among others, the number of Pakistani expatriates decreased from 317,296 to 312,105, and Filipinos from 44,913 to 44,438.

Oman Airports has recorded a 2 percent growth in the number of passengers traveling through its airports during June 2025, reaching 1,134,924 passengers, compared to 1,109,745 passengers in the same period last year.

India-Oman connectivity

Currently, Oman Air flies from Muscat to the Indian cities of Bengaluru, Chennai, Goa, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Thiruvanthapuram. SalamAir flies to Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Mumbai, Jaipur, and Thiruvanthapuram.

Among airlines from India, Indigo flies to Hyderabad, Kannur, Kochi, and Mumbai, while Air India Express flies to Chennai, Kannur, Kochi, Kozhikode, Mangalore, Mumbai, Thiruvanthapuram, and Thiruchirapalli.

Recently, speaking to the Observer, Adrian Hamilton-Manns, CEO, SalamAir, said, "We fly to seven destinations in India and we're limited at the moment because of our fleet size. But the desire is very much to increase our footprint in India. It's a massive market that is just going to be ever-growing. So our view is that we can we can more than double our frequency and our presence in this market.

Among future options, he added, "there's Nagpur which which comes up. We were looking at Calcutta, Trivandrum, which, of course, you know, we used to serve. We will probably go back into that market as well. So there are about 4 or 5 new cities we'd like to add to India."

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