Published by for Ministry of Transport & Communications Special issue on Civil Aviation Transport In Oman Network MoTC A4 E.indd 1 3/30/14 4:39 PM Minister of Transport & Communications Inmarsat to provide free 05 06 global airline tracking Early operations phase of service Muscat and Salalah airports by year-end 7% of GCC 07 passengers book CEO of Public Authority for Civil Aviation online 10 Aviation sector set for qualitative leap Missing flight MH370: 08 Europe to tighten black box rules Muscat International Airport 14 A blend of international 22 Domestic Airports standards and Omani On the road to completion heritage Salalah airport Air-cargo facilities set 25 to stimulate growth 20 Construction work at full throttle Airport projects in Oman 26 A boost for all economic sectors Air Navigation and Control 28 State-of-the-art systems for Oman’s modern airports Multi-Hazard Early 34 Warning System Forecasting potential dangers Meteorology 31 Weather forecasting goes Budget air travel on 36 the horizon high-tech Sultanate of Oman Ministry of Transport & Communications MoTC CEO H.E. Dr. Ibrahim bin Ahmed Al-Kindi Minister of Transport & Communications H.E. Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Futaisi Editor in Chief (Oman Daily Observer) Abdullah bin Salim Al-Shueili HoD, Minister's Office, MoTC Mohammed bin Hamed Al-Shuaili HoD Business Development Department Bader bin Mohammed Al-Thanawi Media Specialist Falah bin Ali Al-Jabri Magazine Editor Amal Ragab Conrad Prabhu Business Development Department Prem Varghese PACA Karen Jane Stephen CEO H.E. Dr. Mohammed bin Nasser Al-Za’abi Irine Mariam Raju Director of Aviation Regulations & Standards Eng. Ahmed bin Issa Al-Zadjali Design Ali Jawish 5 النقل في ُعمان Minister of Transport and Communications Early operations phase of Muscat and Salalah airports by year-end he civil aviation sector in the Sultanate is Salalah Airport have been already awarded. witnessing a sea change with a number The tenders for the passenger terminals at the of airport projects under-way. Work is domestic airports have been already floated. afoot on a major airport development Work has been completed on the runways in The civil and construction programme to meet the Muscat, Salalah, Sohar and Duqm airports and Tconstant growth in the number of passengers, almost completed at Ras al Hadd Airport. aviation which stood at about 8 million for Muscat The third package, centring on the International Airport and more than 700,000 for construction of the passenger terminals at the Salalah Airport as of end-2013. domestic airports, may take up to two years sector in the The growth in the number of passengers has to complete. We seek to benefit from the made such projects a necessity rather than completed phases and ensure early operation of Sultanate is a luxury. We are required to do every possible the domestic airports. To this end, we are going effort to develop our airports to meet the growth to create temporary terminals to operate flights in the number of passengers and be a source of to and from Muscat, Sohar, Duqm and Ras al witnessing a pride for every Omani. Hadd. With the operation of domestic airports in Ras Steady efforts are being made by all the sea change, al Hadd, Sohar and Duqm, additional efforts are stakeholders to ensure the opening of the first required to promote domestic travel by air. While stage of Muscat International Airport this year. driven by an Duqm Airport has been purpose-built to meet The stage includes the runway, control tower, the needs of the industrial hub in Duqm, Ras al Air Traffic Management Centre, and the HQs of Hadd Airport has been built to promote tourism the Public Authority for Civil Aviation. With the energetic activity in the area. opening of the new runway, the air traffic will While Sohar Airport serves the business be transferred to it and the old runway will be airport activities in the Batinah governorate, Salalah rehabilitated and upgraded to be at the same Airport is expected to promote tourism activity level of the new runway. especially during the autumn season. This The control tower and Air Traffic Management development means that the domestic airports will be added Centre will be provided with equipment and value to the aviation sector and will help in systems that are the first of their kind in the programme meeting the needs of the growing number of Sultanate. Work is under way on the passenger passengers. terminal at Muscat International Airport and once While the construction of new airports is very completed it will be opened for passengers. We important, the training and rehabilitation plans to hope to open the new Salalah airport by the end provide the qualified human resources that will of this year. When the be in charge of operating these projects is also Work is also under way to develop the air- very important. Oman Airports Management cargo sector in the Sultanate. The airport domestic Company, the operator of these airports, is projects, save for Ras al Hadd, are provided making steady efforts to provide staff with with air-cargo facilities to meet the continuous airports come specialized high quality training courses that growth in air-freight activities due to the have been tailored to ensure smooth operations Sultanate’s strategic location. of the new airports. In line with the general policies of the into operation, The seventh package of Muscat International Sultanate, new avenues will be opened for Airport is dedicated to meeting the training public and private sectors investment in the attention needs of the new project. Lists of vacancies aviation field, notably in the area of low-cost have been already made and some of them carrier operations for which new licenses will were already announced. be awarded. The move is expected to result in will focus on While a large number of national manpower many positive benefits and boost air traffic as have been already appointed at these projects, well. promoting work is under way to complete the filling up the The Ministry will also continue its campaign vacant posts in the coming period when the to raise public awareness with regard to domestic air completed stages of the projects start operation. the ongoing projects in order to secure the Much headway has been made in the maximum support of the stakeholders and implementation of the airport projects. All the thereby generate optimum benefits for our dear travel packages for Muscat International Airport and country. 6 Transport In Oman Air passengers expected to reach over 6.4 bln by 2030 igures released by the International Civil approximately five per cent compared to Aviation Organization (ICAO) confirmed 2012 and is expected to reach over 6.4 billion Fthat some 3.1 billion passengers made use by 2030, based on current projections. of the global air transport network for their The report said the number of aircraft business and tourism needs in 2013. departures reached 33 million globally The annual passenger total was up during 2013. Inmarsat to provide free global airline tracking service n advance of the conference on aircraft tracking being hosted by the International ICivil Aviation Organization in Montreal, Inmarsat has confirmed it has proposed to ICAO a free global airline tracking service over the Inmarsat network, as part of the anticipated adoption of further aviation safety service measures by the world’s airlines following the loss of flight MH370. This service is being offered to all 11,000 commercial passenger aircraft, which are already equipped with an Inmarsat satellite connection, virtually 100 per cent of the world’s long haul commercial fleet. In addition to this free global airline tracking service, Inmarsat will also offer both an enhanced position reporting facility to support reduced in-flight aircraft separation, and a ‘black box in the cloud’ service, under which – on the back of certain defined trigger events (such as an unapproved course deviation) – historic and real-time flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder information can be streamed off an aircraft to defined aviation safety recipients. 7 النقل في ُعمان EC calls for tough standards to regulate civil drones he European Commission has addressed in a coherent way. proposed to set tough new standards The technology for civil drones is Tto regulate the operations of civil drones maturing and there is potential for (or “remotely piloted aircraft sytems” significant growth and job creation. On – RPAS). The new standards will cover some estimates in the next 10 years safety, security, privacy, data protection, it could be worth 10% of the aviation insurance and liability. The aim is to market — that’s €15 billion per year. allow European industry to become In December, Amazon.com, the world’s a global leader in the market for this largest online retailer, announced that it emerging technology, while at the same is testing unmanned drones to deliver time ensuring that all the necessary products ordered by its customers. The safeguards are in place. service was experimental, and it could Civil drones are increasingly being used probably take up to five years to start. in Europe, in countries such as Sweden, The drone industry is growing at a rapid France and the UK, in different sectors, pace. Aerospace research company Teal but under a fragmented regulatory Group has estimated that sales of military framework. Basic national safety rules and civilian drones will total over 89 billion apply, but the rules differ across the EU dollars in the next 10 years. and a number of key safeguards are not 7% of GCC passengers book online he GCC airlines represent 11% of the global airlines' market, but only around T7% of their bookings are placed online, ac- cording to a study by PAYFORT.