Car Hire Salalah Airport

Salalah Airport Mini Guide

Why do People fly to Salalah Airport?
You’ll find many travellers coming to pray at the huge mosque in Salalah and others who choose to visit the city in the monsoon season and for the festival that accompanies it, attended by over a hundred thousand people each year. Few tourists currently visit and if you’re the only non-Arabs around at times outside of the khareef, you’ll be likely to encounter an abundance of hospitality.

What is Salalah Airport Like?
Salalah Airport was regularly overcrowded. It was quite difficult sometimes to find your way around it but that changed later in 2012 when the new terminal opened with a capacity of twelve million. Facilities were improved which were previously restricted by space and the overcrowding.

What are the Airport Facilities Like?
Before 2012 they were quite limited with only a single shop and the Woodlands Restaurant which serves delicious Indian cuisine. There were no airbridges from the old terminal to planes meaning a sometimes hot, sometimes wet, journey between the plane and the terminal, although luckily all that changed in 2012 with the opening of the new terminal, offering many retail, duty free and dining services. Be aware of the transport scam at the airport whereby buses arrive deliberately late so you are forced to choose a taxi which then charges an extortionate rate. It’s far better and cheaper to pre-book a hire car.

What about Salalah itself?
Salalah is the southern-most city of Oman, in the region of Dhofar and is a place that really lives up to the Sultanate's tag of 'a land of contrasts'. In the summer months of June to early September, when most of the surrounding areas experience soaring temperatures, Dhofar ushers in the monsoon season, bringing with it lush greenery (as picture above), cooling rains and pleasant temperatures. It's also an area rich in Wildlife, with endangered species such as the Arabian Oryx, Nubian Ibex and the rare Arabian Leopard calling it home, as well as it witnessing the migration of over 130 species of bird each year.