Oman Airports Management Company (OAMC) has launched a duty free and F&B Request for Proposals (RFP) for its new Salalah Airport master concession.

 

The deadline to obtain the RFP document is March 20, while OAMC says that the final date for all offers will be May 8 this year.

 

Meanwhile, OAMC had indicated in the local press that it expects to award the Salalah concession in July and then tender its new Muscat Airport duty free contract sometime later this year.

 

Salalah Airport’s total passenger traffic rose by just over 18% to 745,000 passengers last year.

 

As reported by TRBusiness, the duty free tender for the new $1.8bn Muscat International Airport in the Sultanate of Oman is expected to generate particularly good interest when it is released [http://www.trbusiness.com/index.php/regional/middleeast/14635-tender-expected-at-muscat-airport.html].

 

The existing Muscat Airport business is currently run by a 50-50 joint venture between Aer Rianta International Middle East and Oman Air known as Oman Sales & Services LLC. ARI has operated duty free shops at Muscat International Airport for the past eleven years and also manages in-flight operations for Oman Air and an outlet at the local sea port, Port Sultan Qaboos.

 

An artist’s interior impression of the new Muscat Airport terminal building.

 

A GOOD-SIZED OPERATION

The Muscat operation has delivered annual sales turnover levels in excess of $50m in past years. When the new airport opens it will replace the existing 40-year old facility with a terminal building comprising a total gross floor area of 344,995sq m.

 

This will be supported by two parallel A380-friendly runways, 96 check-in counters, 29 passenger boarding bridges and a 90-room capacity airside hotel.

 

The new terminal will also be able to handle 12m passengers a year when it opens for business in 2015 and the Oman Airports Management Company (OAMC) says that further expansions in three subsequent phases will boost annual passenger capacity to 24m, 36m and 48m respectively.

 

The total number of departing, arriving and transit passengers using MIA last year reached 8.3m, an increase of 10%.

 

Muscat International Airport won second place award in the Best Airport Staff Service in the Middle East region last year, and 10th place in the Best Airport in the World in the five to ten million passenger category, according to the 2013 Skytrax survey of airports.

 

Top image: Oman Air at Muscat International Airport [Photo credit: Bilal Mirza].