Passengers numbers at the Muscat International Airport increased by 9.8 per cent between January and September, reaching 11,419,791 compared to the same period last year.

In addition, the total number of flights rose 5.4 per cent to 89,045 flights in the first nine months, from 84,454 flights during the same period in 2017, according to the latest monthly statistics released by the centre.

The number of international flights at the Muscat International Airport increased by 6.9 per cent to 80,246 flights from January to September, up from 75,076 flights in the first nine months of 2017.

The total number of international passengers at the Muscat International Airport in the first nine months totalled 10,510,374 passengers, which included an arrival of 5,233,907 passengers, departure of 5,260,719 and transit passengers to the extent of 15,748. Also, domestic flights at the Muscat International Airport fell by 6.2 per cent to 8,799 flights in the first nine months of 2018, against 9,378 flights for the same period of last year.

The total domestic passengers at the Muscat International Airport marginally fell 1.9 per cent to 909,417 between January and September, against 927,038 passengers for the same period of last year. The domestic passenger arrivals also declined by 2.5 per cent to 452,297 while domestic departures fell by 1.3 per cent to 456,848 passengers during the nine-month period, the NCSI report showed.

At the Salalah International Airport, the total number of passengers fell 10 per cent to 1.09 million passengers between January and September, against 1.20 million passengers for the same period of last year. The total number of flights at Salalah International Airport declined by 16.0 per cent to 9,513 during the first nine months, against 11,330 flights for the same period last year, the report showed.

While the total number of international flights at the Salalah International airport declined by 28.0 per cent to 3,251 from January to September, the total number of international passengers showed a 24 per cent fall at 359,587 passengers. Similarly, the total number of domestic fights showed an 8.1 per cent fall at 6,262 flights, while the number of domestic passengers edged down by 0.2 per cent to 728,507 passengers. - TradeArabia News Service