MUSCAT: The total number of passengers at the Muscat International Airport rose by 8.7 per cent to 4 million at the end of March 2019, over the same period of the previous year. The total number of flights rose 1.5 per cent to 28,775 flights in March 2019, compared to 28,346 flights for the same period of 2018, according to the latest monthly statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The number of international flights at the airport increased by 2.1 per cent to 26,334 flights during the three-month period of 2019, up from 25,789 flights for the same period of the previous year. The total number of international passengers rose by 9.4 per cent at the end of March 2019, reaching 3.72 million passengers. This included 1.86 million passenger arrivals, 1.85 million passenger departures and 9,969 passenger transits.
Meanwhile, domestic flights at the airport fell by 4.5 per cent to 2,441 flights at the end of March 2019, against 2,557 flights for the same period of 2018. The arrival and departure of domestic flights also dropped by 4.4 per cent and 4.7 per cent, respectively. The total number of domestic passengers at Muscat International Airport rose by 0.1 per cent to 278,052 passengers in March 2019, against 277,799 passengers for the same period of the previous year. This included 137,362 passenger arrivals and 140,690 passenger departures, the NCSI report showed.
Meanwhile, according to the report, the total number of passengers at Salalah International Airport increased by 2.7 per cent to 339,706 passengers at the end of March 2019 compared to 330,725 passengers for the same period of 2018. The total number of flights at Salalah International Airport rose by 5.6 per cent to 2,794 flights in March 2019 compared to 2,647 flights in March 2018.
The total number of international flights at the airport surged by 21.9 per cent to 1,217 flights till the end of March 2019 while the number of domestic fights fell by 4.4 per cent to 1,577 flights in March 2019.
The total number of international passengers recorded a rise of 11.2 per cent to reach 135,773 passengers while the number of domestic passengers fell by 2.2 per cent to 203,933 passengers.
However, there was a drop in the total number of passengers at Sohar International Airport by 42.5 per cent to 48,716 passengers at the end of March 2019 compared to 84,717 passengers for the same period of 2018. The total number of flights at Sohar airport also fell by 26.4 per cent to 524 flights in March 2019 compared to 712 flights in March 2018.
Duqm Airport saw a rise in the total number of passengers by 26.8 per cent to 14,075 passengers at the end of March 2019 compared to 11,103 passengers for the same period of 2018. The total number of flights at Duqm Airport till the end of March 2019 reached 148, which is a drop by 3.9 per cent compared to 154 flights in March 2018, the report showed. — ONA
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