The aviation sector in the Sultanate of Oman benefited from the FIFA Football World Cup, according to the latest figures released by the International Air Transport Organisation (IATA).
As bookings to Qatar skyrocketed by 77 per cent in November 2022, bookings between the World Cup host and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, and Saudi Arabia also increased because international travellers lodged in these countries and then shuttled to Qatar for specific matches.
The share of passengers booking a return flight from Saudi Arabia to Qatar with only 0-1 night of stay increased from 5 per cent in October to 16 per cent in November.
For the UAE, the share increased from 14 per cent to 51 per cent, and for Oman, from 5 per cent to 44 per cent.
Looking more closely at bookings to Qatar, ticket sales originating in Morocco – a surprising semifinalist to some – increased considerably in the week following its national team’s knockout of Spain in the round of 16.
In particular, spontaneous bookings from Morocco to Qatar for the day of the match against Portugal increased from a total of four bookings three days prior to the match to 1,171 bookings two days before the match.
For the match against France, bookings jumped from five bookings three days before to a total of 1,565 bookings two days before the match.
The same applies to ticket sales from Argentina, the tournament's winning team. Once it qualified for the final against France, bookings to Qatar almost doubled.
The majority of tickets for flights before the final were purchased two days before, indicating the Argentinian fans reacted quickly to travel to Qatar to see the final match.
Air transport is vital for international sports events, allowing people to travel and support their teams. After two and half years of travel restrictions, people are eager to travel again despite the challenging circumstances that the world is facing at present, the IATA said.
The Middle East is shifting to growth mode in Q4, with international arrivals at +4 per cent, long ahead of the global average of -30 per cent.
“The FIFA World Cup is certainly the key driver for its travel recovery”, said Juan Gomez, head of market Intelligence at ForwardKeys.
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