Top 20 goal for new Oman airports chief

Muscat: Oman Airports’ new chairman has been tasked with making the airport one of the best in the world.
Yahya bin Said bin Abdullah Al Jabri, chairman of the Special Economic Zone Authority Duqm (SEZAD), who also holds a minister’s title, will aim to take Oman Airports Management Company (OAMC) to great heights in line with its strategy to become one of the top 20 airports in the world.
OAMC has 12 initiatives underpinning its strategic objectives, including profitable growth, operational excellence, enabling assets and engaging stakeholders, to help it excel.
Developing customer experience, a competency framework and assessments, updating the airport master plan for the Muscat International Airport and operating the readiness of Phase 2 for the new Muscat International Airport are some of the other goals.
OAMC has also added new services in the updated phone application to make receiving live and updated information easier for its customers, such as live arrival and departure information for the Muscat and Salalah Airports, the ability to search for flights and bookmark results and boarding alerts in addition to many other features and facilities.
In light of the recent development of OAMC, the Muscat International Airport saw a 17 per cent rise in the number of total passengers in April at 960,789 passengers, compared with the same month last year.
Between January and April, passenger traffic jumped by 1 million to 5,783,289 compared with the same period in 2015, when 4,826,662 passengers were recorded.
Aircraft movement at the Muscat International Airport also saw an increase of 8 per cent in April this year, with 8,281 aircraft while the period between January and April saw a 12 per cent rise, with total aircraft movement recorded at 49,219, compared with 44,330 during the same period last year.
Passenger movement
Moreover, Salalah Airport recorded a 13 per cent increase in passenger movement at 80,433 in April; compared with 71,046 during the same month in 2015, while aircraft movement decreased by 11 per cent.
The decrease in the civil aircraft movement goes back to the national carrier’s strategy of flying fewer flights to Salalah with larger aircraft carrying more passengers.
Meanwhile, the Duqm Airport saw a 57 per cent jump in passenger movement in April, at 2,299, up from 1,460 last year. However, aircraft movement decreased by 6 per cent, while the total between January and April was up by 3 per cent to 138 from the same period last year.
The Sohar Airport also recorded a 50 per cent drop in passenger traffic in April, as well as a 66 per cent drop in aircraft movement.