Oman to have six new airports by 2029

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The Sultanate of Oman will have six new airports and most of them are expected to be operational by 2028-2029, according to Naif al Abri, Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority.

In an interview on the sidelines of Future Aviation Forum in Riyadh, he said that as work is underway on the design of these new projects, the number of airports in the country will go up to 13, which will boost tourism.

Al Abri said that with the completion of these airports, the number of passengers using airports in the Sultanate of Oman will go up to 50 million passengers by 2040 from the current 17 million.

Alongside the opening of a new terminal of Muscat International Airport in 2018, which can handle up to 20 million passengers a year, the Sultanate of Oman saw the opening of a new terminal building at Salalah (two million passengers a year) and new airports in Duqm and Suhar.

It has been reported earlier that the new Musandam Airport will be completed by the second half of 2028 with all studies for the project completed and the appropriate site chosen for its construction.

"The new airport can handle Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 size aircraft," according to the Ministry of Transport, and Communications and Information Technology.

With the budget already allocated, the new airports will also help to get more international traffic besides giving a boost to the logistics and tourism sectors in places by linking them with industrial areas of Suhar and Salalah.

There are also plans to improve connectivity to the popular tourist destination of Ras al Hadd in Al Sharqiyah South Governorate.

CAA recently floated tenders from specialised companies for site selection studies, master plans, design and supervision for the proposed development of Al Jabal Al Akhdhar, Masirah and Suhar airports.

It may be noted that Muscat International Airport received 4,430,119 passengers in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 12.4 per cent from 3,792,212 during the same period in 2023.

Salalah Airport handled 429,181 passengers in the first quarter of this year, while Suhar handled 22,390 passengers and Duqm handled 9,405 passengers during the same period.