Muscat International Airport has been ranked ninth in terms of connectivity in the Middle East.
According to a report released by the OAG Megahubs Index 2019, Muscat has a connectivity index of 50 with 60 per cent of the flights operated by the national airline, Oman Air.
The airport offers direct connectivity to India, UAE, Bangladesh, Syria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Bahrain, Qatar, Iran, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, China, Russia, Kenya, Greece, Tanzania, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Italy, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Nepal.
Seasonal direct flights are available to Azerbaijan and Georgia.
The Muscat Airport handled 52,220 international flights and 7,373, 068 passengers at the end of
June this year with the majority of flight arrival and departures are made to India (105,916 arrivals and 82,364 departures), Bangladesh (20,542 arrivals and 18,325 departures) and Pakistan (15,756 arrivals and 18,792 departures).
With numbers, it may be noted that Oman Air had a 14 per cent hike in passenger numbers over
the last year, touching 9.6 million. Oman Aviation Services has a 14 per cent increase in luggage, eight
per cent more cargo and five per cent more passengers in the same period.
OAG calculated the total number of all possible connections between inbound and outbound
flights within a six-hour window, where either the inbound, outbound or both flights are
international, at the largest 200 airports in the world (based on total scheduled seats in July
2019) and at the largest 200 international airports (based on total international scheduled seats
in July 2019) on the busiest day for global aviation over the 12 months to July 2019.
Egypt’s Cairo airport also has the same connectivity index of 50 as Muscat with 52 per cent of the
flights operated by Egypt Air. The topmost internationally connected airports in the world
are London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Chicago, Amsterdam, Munich, Toronto, Paris and Atlanta among
others.
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