Oman Air's service will help facilitate business growth in the area
OMAN Air starts serving the new Omani regional airport at Duqm today (July 23) and will consist of four flights per week, operating Oman Air's acclaimed Embraer E175 aircraft.
The Oman Air flights into the new airport will be marked with a celebration organized and hosted at Duqm by the city's Special Economic Zone Authority and attended by the media, high level dignitaries and officials from the Government of Oman and senior managers from Oman Air.
Oman Air's Acting Chief Executive Officer, Salim Al Kindy, said: "We are delighted to be launching our domestic service between Muscat and Duqm and, in doing so, to be supporting the development of this increasingly important city. As a Special Economic Zone, Duqm is playing a vital role in Oman's economic growth and Oman Air's service will help to both facilitate business growth in the area and attract further investment."
"Our service to the new airport builds on the success of the charter service we have operated over the last year and underlines Oman Air's commitment to supporting the development of domestic air travel in the Sultanate," he added.
The importance of Duqm as an industrial center in Oman has grown rapidly in recent years, as two billion dollars' worth of investment have facilitated the construction of quays, dry docks, roads and hotels, in addition to the new airport.
The city is now poised to build on its outstanding strategic location on the shores of the Indian Ocean to become a logistical supply chain city of the 21st century whose size may well come to surpass Singapore or Bahrain. Not only will Duqm provide a link between the already well-established port of Salalah in the south Oman and the northern ports of Muscat and Sohar, but it also holds the potential to become a major trans-shipment hub for goods being transported between Asia and Africa. Planners envisage the creation of fisheries, an oil refinery, a transit hub for petrochemicals, a rail link, mineral-based manufacturing, a desalinization plant, a hospital, a mall, an international school, a town center and a tourist zone over the next few years.
© The Saudi Gazette 2014
