The Oman Airports Management Company (OAMC) is extending invitations to retailers and food and beverage operators for ‘duty free services and luxury retail’ at the $1.8bn New Muscat International Airport, which is due to open next year.

 

Interested companies are being asked to collect their bid documents online by July 1 2015, with a shut off date of 8 July 2015. [The direct link to obtain these details is here: https://www.omanairports.co.om/ViewTenderDetails.aspx?ID=205].

 

Muscat Duty Free (MDF) has traded at the existing Seeb Airport (from departures and arrivals shops) since 2003 as a 50/50 joint venture company between Oman Air and Aer Rianta International Middle East.

 

 

According to OAMC, the existing Muscat International Airport is directly connected to 55 destinations in 27 countries by 33 international airlines, having served 9.1m passengers in 2013. By contrast, the New Muscat Airport will initially have the capacity to handle 12m passengers annually.

 

The total gross floor area for the new Muscat International terminal building is 344,995sq m, with an overall airport land area of 21sq km. Three subsequent expansion phases are planned to increase the airport’s annual capacity to 24m, 36m and 48m passengers when projected demand requires it.

 

According to its forecasts, OAMC says it is expecting around 16,195,637 passengers in 2020, compared with the 9,142,019 handled in 2014. January to May traffic this year rose by 10% to 4m with a boost provided by extra flights from Emirates, FlyDubai and other airlines.

 

 

In addition, the new airport will feature 96 check-in counters; 29 passenger boarding bridges; 30 remote aircraft stands; 5,500 bags per hour baggage processing capacity; two parallel A380-ready runways; and a 90-room airside hotel.

 

The new airport – which is two years behind schedule – is being constructed by a consortium comprising of Bechtel, Enka and Bahwan Engineering.

 

Meanwhile, Oman Airports Management Company (OAMC) has confirmed that ATU Duty Free has opened its 727sq m duty free departure and 117sq m arrivals stores within Salahah Airport, where it is contracted to run the food and beverage areas within the New Salahah Airport terminal.

 

ATU Turizm Isletmeciligi A.S. was chosen ‘though a competitive bidding process’ as the master retail concessionaire for this 10-year umbrella contract in ‘a competitive process’ last year, as reported by TRBusiness at that time [for more information, click here: http://www.trbusiness.com/regional-news/middle-east/atu-turizm-wins-salalah-contract/35609].

 

To obtain key traveller statistics and a bespoke Muscat International Airport retail report provided by Counter Intelligence Retail (CiR), click here.