Arrivals to Oman exceed departures for the second consecutive month

Muscat: For the second consecutive month, the number of passengers arriving to in the Sultanate Oman by air is greater than the number of people leaving the country through its airports.

Figures from the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) show that 184,095 passengers arrived in Oman in October 2021, compared to 166,302 people who left the country. Similarly, in September, 171,494 people came to Oman, while 121,187 people left.

The number of arrivals is a marked increase from August 2021, when only 91,355 people entered Oman, in comparison to 127,575 people who left.

Overall, the number of departures in 2021 continues to outpace arrivals: just above a million people arrived in Oman until October 2021, while about 1.15 million people left the country during that time frame.

The number of expatriate workers in the country has also increased steadily over the past three months, although there are still fewer non-Omanis working in the country at this time, as compared to the end of 2020.

Expat worker numbers rose steadily from 1.339 million in September 2021 to 1.358 million in October 2021, and jumped to 1.382 million in November of this year. Most of the workers who arrived in the country joined the private sector, whose strength of foreign workers rose from 1.087 million in October 2021 to 1.108 million in November. Government worker numbers dipped slightly from 38,123 to 38,073.

At the end of 2020, there were 1.443 million expatriates working in the country.

Bangladeshi nationals continue to make up Oman’s largest expat community, with 525,296 workers, followed by Indians (460,224) and Pakistanis (186,629).

More than one-third of all expatriate workers are found in Muscat (579,875 workers live in the capital), followed by North Al Batinah (193,851) and the southern Dhofar region (159,931).