Sunday 06 / October / 2024
Muscat: Passenger numbers at airports in Oman are steadily approaching the levels recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic began, reveal statistics published by the government.
By the end of February 2022, about 1.1 million passengers had arrived at and departed from four airports in Oman: Muscat, Salalah, Sohar, and Duqm, compared to the nearly 1.6 million passengers using Oman’s airports at the end of January 2020, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Oman.
While passenger numbers in Muscat are still down – 1.43 million passengers travelled through Muscat International Airport in the first month of 2020, and nearly a million used the airport in January and February 2022 – figures published by the National Centre for Statistics and Information show that there has actually been a passenger increase at both Duqm and Salalah airports.
9,747 passengers arrived at and departed from Duqm airport in the first two months of 2022, compared to 4,985 in January 2020. While 52 flights landed in the first month of 2020, that number more than doubled to 122 by the end of February 2022.
At Salalah in the southern Dhofar governorate, passenger numbers climbed to 147,489 by February 2022, compared to 118,771 in January 2020. 1,067 flights have also landed at Salalah International Airport, compared to 918 flights in January 2020.
At Sohar, however, numbers are still lower than they were pre-pandemic: 23,475 passengers arrived and departed on 274 flights until February 2022, compared to 32,575 passengers on 242 flights in January 2020.
Explaining the reason for the recovery in passenger numbers, Venkat Perumal, sales manager for the Oman office of Go First airlines, said, “The main reason for the steady increase in traveller and flight numbers is because more and more countries have removed their COVID-19 related restrictions.
“Now, you don’t need to take a PCR test for most countries, which makes travel very easy… all you need to show is proof of vaccination,” he said.
“After about two years of being unable to travel, people are also very eager to fly once again,” he further added.
“With the school holidays and summer vacations coming up soon, we expect passenger numbers and flight stats to go up even further in the coming months,” added perumal.
Passenger numbers have been roughly steady in late 2021 and early 2022: 517,776 passengers went through Muscat airport in December 2021, another 478,291 in January 2022, and some 444,988 in February 2022.
Similarly, at Salalah, 25,946 passengers used the airport in December 2021, 27,821 in January 2022, and about 27,460 in February 2022.
Compared to February 2021, there has been an 85 percent increase in passenger arrivals at Oman’s airports in February 2022. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are the top three countries to which passengers arrive to and depart from Oman, according to NCSI figures.
In February 2022, 36,550 passengers departed Oman for India, 11,926 went to Bangladesh, and 11,834 went to Pakistan. Furthermore, 49,417 passengers came from India, 24,033 from Bangladesh, and 16,783 from Pakistan, figures show.
