Muscat Airport continues growth in passengers and freight

In the latest figures issued by the airport, there was a 17% growth in passenger traffic during the first 10 months of this year to 6,266,484 passengers, compared with 5,345,386 passengers during the same period of 2011.

The airport authorities have said new routes from Ethiopia and Bangladesh contributed significantly to the figures.

However hopes that the boost from Africa would continue were dashed yesterday when Ethiopian Airlines announced the cancellation of its planned service increase to Oman, which was due to commence from Tuesday. The airline will continue to operate four weekly Addis Ababa - Muscat flights for the winter 2012/13 season.

Air cargo traffic also rose 15% during the same period, with total shipment of 94,000 tonnes, compared with 82.347 tonnes in the same period in 2011.