Airport Council International (ACI) has ranked Muscat International Airport and Salalah Airport seventh and fourth globally in two different categories.

Muscat airport secured the recognition in the ‘15-25 million passengers’ category, while Salalah Airport got the award in the under 2 million passengers category. Muscat International Airport ranked 7th place worldwide in the 2019 Airport Council International (ACI) Best Airport Awards recognising airports in the ‘15-25 million passengers’ category. Salalah Airport continued its progress ranking 4th in the airport category for under 2 million passengers.

In 2015, Oman Airports had set its sight on being the top airports in the world as part of its role in the Sultanate’s overall renaissance. Consequently, the organisation devised a strategy defining a clear vision of reaching the top 20 airports goal by 2020. Within the same year, Oman Airports adopted ACI’s Airport Service Quality (ASQ) programme to be a measure of their services for both Muscat International Airport and Salalah Airport.

ASQ is ACI’s world’s leading and globally recognised airport passenger service and benchmarking programme. It measures passengers’ satisfaction across 34 key performance indicators via surveys. This includes passenger touchpoints such as access to the terminal, check-in experience, passport control, security, airport facilities and environment. Passengers are asked to rate their experience on a variety of features including ambience, cleanliness and customer experience, according to a statement by Oman News Agency.

The year 2016 served as a starting point for improvement with Muscat International Airport ranking 71st. The transfer to the new terminal building in 2018 served as a launch pad for improvement in services. The year 2019 saw further progress and getting recognition as 7th by ACI.

The new Salalah Airport terminal was inaugurated in 2015 with the airport starting its ranking at 9th in the ASQ ranking category for under 2mn passengers per year. The airport saw substantial improvements every year. The year 2019 saw the airport ranking 4th in the same category.

Despite global challenges in the aviation sector, both Muscat International Airport and Salalah Airport’s rankings are incentives for investing in the future. Oman Airports currently manages seven airports in the country including Muscat International Airport, Salalah Airport, Suhar Airport, Duqm Airport, Qarn Alam Airport, Marmul Airport and Fahud Airport.