Muscat – Salalah Airport reported significant growth this khareef season, marking a 29% rise in air traffic and a 34.4% increase in passenger numbers in July and August.

The airport logged 3,168 flights in July and August, as compared to the 2,455 flights in the same period last year. Similarly, passenger count soared to 471,911 in these two months, compared to 351,109 in 2022.

Salalah Airport services 10 airlines from the Gulf and Asia linking various GCC cities, Kozhikode (Calicut) and Kochi (Cochin) in India, and Lahore in Pakistan.

The number of visitors, who experienced the 2023 khareef in Dhofar until August 15 since beginning of the season stood at 739,884, up 16.3% compared to the corresponding period in 2022, according to National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) data.

NCSI compiles visitor numbers in three categories – citizens, GCC visitors and tourists of other nationalities.

The NCSI data show the number of Omani visitors this khareef has increased 16% to rise up to 516,276.

A total of 125,889 visitors from other GCC states have arrived to date this season, compared to 107,804 during the corresponding period in 2022.

The number of visitors of other nationalities has risen from 83,382 to 97,719 this season.

Statistics show that 581,723 visitors arrived via land checkpoints, while the number of air travellers was 158,161, registering an increase of 29% over the figures of this segment last year.