Thursday 26 / December / 2024
Muscat: Port of Salalah, in close partnership with ROP customs, have successfully tested sea-air connectivity with a priority shipment destined for Qatar during the second week of December.
The shipment, a 40FT Maersk container loaded from Antwerp, upon discharge in Salalah, was successfully moved on customs bond to Muscat airport for air freight to Doha in a record time of 15 hours. This included tracking the shipment movement process from the seaport to the airport in Muscat at every step. The ROP extended extraordinary support in making this trial a successful one with seamless operation at both ends.
Sea-air, a multi-modal transport supply chain solution that combines ocean freight's cost-effectiveness and airfreight's speed in the supply chain, is more relevant now given the current reliability and high-cost challenges with ocean freight post the pandemic. The integrated Salalah ecosystem's solution is also one of the key focus areas of Oman 2040 vision logistics strategy.
The Port of Salalah is the fastest access point between the Middle East, India, and East Africa and markets in Europe, the Americas, and the rest of the world. Moving cargo through the largest port in Oman can save days in transit times and cut costs. With this successful execution of this solution, Salalah targets offering a viable and cost-effective sea-air product via Salalah and Muscat airports, which saves an additional two days in terms of total transit time over regional competitors.
“We were extremely pleased with the seamless operations with our shipment once handed over to Port of Salalah which helped us exceed our customer expectations,” says Naushad Rehman, Managing Director, Muscat International Shipping, acting on behalf of the consignee.
“Sea-air shipments are known for their time sensitivity, the successful execution of the trial shipment of sea-air product with the cooperation from ROP customs and ASYAD. This marks a significant step in testing our system capabilities, thereby bringing Salalah on the map of global sea-air locations,” quoted Mark Hardiman, CEO of the Port of Salalah.
