Oman Air Cargo, the cargo division of Oman Air – the national carrier of the sultanate, has upgraded its cargo hub facility at the new Muscat International Air Cargo Terminal, which will help towards setting globally competitive logistics standards.

The new cargo facility features a 22,780 sq-m, air-conditioned warehouse with the capacity to handle 350,000 tonnes of cargo per annum, a substantially larger capacity than the previous cargo facility, said a statement from the company.

Oman Air’s chief executive officer Engineer Abdulaziz Al Raisi said: “We are proud of our 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.”

“We have made significant inroads in online as well as offline cargo markets and its growth trajectory has been very strong and steady,” he said.

With the upgraded facility, Oman Air Cargo’s year-on-year statistics for the first half of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017 indicate a 25 per cent increase in business. This follows on from a 38 per cent increase in business for the year 2017, and a 5 per cent increase in 2016, it said.

Mohammed Ali Al Musafir, Oman Air’s senior vice president, commercial cargo, said: “Combined with our track record of providing high quality services to its logistics customers, the upgraded cargo facility now aligns the company with world-class, globally competitive transport and logistics industry standards and trends.”

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 twenty-five 40-foot truck parking bays (or fifty 20-foot truck bays), as well as 400 car parking bays and 34 truck docks.

The facility also features Bulk Cold Rooms (consisting of 3 chillers, 2 freezers, and 1 ambient room), and ULD Cold Rooms with 28 airline pallet positions in the chiller rooms, and 8 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 sq-m Live Animal Centre, a 228 sq-m 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.

The cargo facility accompanied the development of the brand new passenger terminal at Muscat International Airport, which began its first commercial operations in March. The new facility is also aligned with Oman Air’s ambitious and dynamic program of fleet and network expansion, it stated. – TradeArabia News Service