A second runway at the Muscat International Airport is expected to be ready for use next year, Oman Air’s chief executive officer Paul Gregorowitsch said, adding that it will help reduce delays due to runway congestion.

Speaking exclusively to Times of Oman, Gregorowitsch said: "We do have problems due to the absence of the second runway. It’s heavily congested, but the new terminal will attract new flights from Oman Air as we are growing from 42 aircraft today to 70 by 2020."

He also expressed his concern over the heavily congested existing airport, as quite often the carrier is forced to park closer to the new terminal, which would take transfer passengers close to 15 minutes to reach the terminal building.

Currently the new Muscat International Airport is partially open as Oman Air is using the runway. The passenger terminal is expected to open step by step by the end of this year. Then the full airport will open in 2017.

According to Oman Airports Management Company, a total of 1,044,249 passengers passed through the Muscat International Airport during September 2016, registering a 17 per cent increase compared to the same month last year, while civil aircraft movement recorded a 7 per cent increase last month with 8,688 in September 2016 compared to 8,140 during the same period in 2015.