Oman Air Cargo has moved into a new state-of-the-art cargo facility at the new Muscat International Air Cargo Terminal which it said will fuel further future growth and help it meet growing demand.
The new cargo facility is spread over 22,780 square metres and has capacity to handle 350,000 tonnes of cargo per annum – a substantially larger capacity than the previous cargo facility that the carrier operated.
With the upgraded facility, the airline’s year-on-year statistics for the 1st half of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017 show a 25 per cent increase in business. This follows on from a 38 per cent rise in 2017, and five per cent in 2016.
Oman Air’s chief executive officer, Abdulaziz Al Raisi said: “Oman Air is proud of its new cargo facility at Muscat Airport, which apart from enhancing the operations, also provides the opportunity to boost trade and commerce opportunities for the Sultanate’s economy. Oman Air has made significant inroads in online as well as offline cargo markets and its growth trajectory has been very strong and steady. ”
The new facility includes 367 pallet or 734 container configurations for unit load device (ULD) storage over three levels, as well as 2,208 skidded pallet positions – all serviced by elevating transfer vehicles (ETV).
Accompanying these are dedicated bays that can accommodate three ‘Code F Freighter’ Aircraft, along with 25, 40-foot truck parking bays (or fifty 20-foot truck bays), as well as 400 car parking bays and 34 truck docks.
Oman Air’s senior vice president for commercial cargo, Mohammed Ali Al Musafir said the upgraded cargo facility now “aligns the company with world-class, globally competitive transport and logistics industry standards and trends”.
The new facility also features bulk cold rooms (consisting of three chillers, two freezers, and one ambient room), and ULD cold rooms with 28 airline pallet positions in the chiller rooms, and eight airline pallet positions in the freezer rooms.
In addition to this, there are scissor lift & ULD bypass lane facilities, as well as X-ray machines for joining and trans-shipment cargo screening.
The facility also includes a 2,500 square-metre live animal centre, a 228 square-metere dangerous goods room (DGR) with the capacity to handle 90 skids and loose cartons, and a vulnerable goods cage with 264 pallet positions. The diplomatic room, Human remains room, radioactive room and strong room make up the remainder of the facility’s handling units.
The entire facility is supported by 24-hour services for import and export cargo, and its automated cargo system for documentation and warehousing, export cargo acceptance, and imports cargo delivery.
