‘Qualitative addition to the aviation sector: Futaisi

Sayyid Fahd affirmed that the achievements made on the land of Oman targeted mainly the Omani citizen saying “We all endeavor to provide the Omani citizen with utmost welfare and happiness in his country.”

Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Futaisi, Minister of Transport and Communications said that Muscat International Airport is one of the fruits of the prosperous era of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said and a qualitative addition to the Omani civil aviation sector. The Airport will enhance the sector system on the level of the region due to the capabilities, high quality system and facilities and ability to handle the growing number of inbound and outbound passengers.

He added in his speech that Muscat International Airport has become an ideal airport as per the international civil aviation standards. The airport has an annual capacity of 20 million passengers in first stage expandable to 56 million passengers annually in latter stages; thanks to the resources allocated which made it very important for the growth of tourism, economy and investment activities in the Sultanate.

“After years of continuous planning and hard work, this economic and tourism icon has been operated. Muscat International Airport is unique in terms of size, appearance, organisation and facilities. It has become one of the greatest achievements made by the Sultanate throughout the past 48 years of the Blessed Renaissance.

Muscat International Airport, which is overseen by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, has a passenger terminal, a 4 km runway, a 103-metre air observation tower, an air cargo terminal, and a catering terminal, as well as an aircraft maintenance building and other airport terminals.

Muscat International Airport has been designed as per international standards and as per the highest service levels as the ideal Airport as per the classification approved by International Air Transport Association (IATA).

The total area of the terminal is about 580,000 square metres, including building services, car parking and annex buildings with an area of 37,000 square metres.

The building includes at 118 booths to complete the travelling procedures and 82 a table of Immigration and Passports by Royal Oman Police. The retail outlets are distributed on the air and land sides of the building on about 12,000 square meters.

It has two gates for big aircraft, such as Airbus 380 and Boeing 747. The gates are connected to bridges to transport passengers to and from the aircraft. The building contains 10 belts line for baggage handling, 8 for the international flights and 2 for domestic flights with a capacity of 5,200 bags per hour and with a length of 11.2 km. The building includes lounges for VIP, first and business class, offices for airlines and rent- a- car offices, in addition to offices for tourism information and assorted services.

The building also accommodates a four-star hotel with 90 rooms, swimming pools, and food lounges. The design has a space for adding 90 more rooms in the future. In addition to that, there are 29 gates linked to 40 bridge to transport passengers to and from the aircraft, and 16 ground gates to transport passengers by bus. It has 59 parking lots for aircraft.

Muscat International Airport has the Public Authority for Civil Aviation building and the air cargo building over 32,000 square meters with a capacity of 350,000 tonnes per annum that will be increased to 500,000 tonnes. It has a building for handling goods that ensure smooth handling of goods containers. It has the main gate building over 49,600 square meters, in addition to the building of those deported operated by Royal Oman Police.