Passenger traffic at Salalah Airport increases by 6.7% by end of May 2025

Muscat: The total number of passengers through Oman’s airports (Muscat, Salalah, Sohar, and Duqm Airport), reached approximately 5.79 million passengers by the end of May 2025, compared to 5.96 during the same period in 2024, reflecting a 3% decline, according to preliminary data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

Muscat International Airport handled 5.20 million passengers by the end of May 2025, compared to 5.39 milion in the same period of the previous year, recording a decrease of 3.5 percent, and the number of flights also declined by 7.5 percent to 37,307 flights, compared to 40,322 flights in the same period of 2024.

The data indicated that Salalah Airport recorded a 6.7% increase in the number of passengers, reaching 5.57 million passengers by the end of May 2025, compared to 5.22 million in the same period of 2024.

However, the total number of flights recorded a slight decline of 0.3%, totalling 3,717 compared to 3,730 flights by the end of May 2024.

Sohar Airport recorded a sharp 98.8% drop from 336 passengers by the end of May 2025 to 27,350 passenger traffic by the end of May 2024. 

Meanwhile, the number of flights also declined by 63.7%, reaching 82 flights, compared to 226 flights by the end of May 2024.

Duqm Airport also recorded a decline in flight operations by 1.5%, with 256 flights compared to 260 in the same period in previous year, while the Passenger numbers at the same airport fell by 1.2%, totalling 25,371 passengers by the end of May 2025, compared to 25,675 in May 2024.

The statistics revealed that Indian nationals topped the list of most frequent travellers (arrivals and departures) through Muscat International Airport during May 2025, with a total of 193,861 passengers, including 85,447 arrivals and 108,414 departures.

The Indian nationals’ passengers were followed by Omani nationals’ passengers with a total of 108,916 passengers, including 54,086 arrivals and 54,830 departures, and Pakistani nationals came third with 46,930 passengers, including 21,267 arrivals and 25,663 departures.