Blue-sky thinking

Oman’s airport expansion plans aim to establish the country as a premium destination for both tourist and business travellers. George Bellew, the man charged with orchestrating the operation of the airport infrastructure, outlines his vision.

“If you can enable or facilitate ease of travel for business people and traders to and from Oman, this will be catalytic in terms of developing trade”
-George Bellew

Rarely has the designation 'greenfield development' seemed less appropriate. The 8km by 8km parcel of parched land situated some 30km outside of the city of Adam in Oman's desert heartland is as far from the lush, verdant images conjured up by the phrase as it is possible to get. Dusty earthworks litter the site in preparation for the next phase of construction, while the newly built, 4km runway stretches across the hot, arid sands with barely a tree or a blade of grass in sight. As misnomers go, calling this a greenfield site is up there with the best of them.

George Bellew, CEO of the Oman Airport Management Company and the man charged with heading the development and operation of the country's airport infrastructure, laughs when I suggest this to him. "I guess the term is a bit inappropriate in this context," the native New Zealander admits with a grin. But while chromatographically incongruous, he insists the phrase does reveal an essential truth: that Oman is committed to new infrastructure development, and is looking beyond the existing urban environment to do so. "It shows the government's enthusiasm for expanding and investing in the aviation sector, bringing air travel to new segments of the population and opening up new areas of the country to development," he asserts. "Simplistically, it means diversification of revenue and growth for the economy."

The airport at Adam will serve as a gateway to the vast central region of the country, while three other brand new facilities – at Ras Al Hadd in the northeast, Duqm on the central east coast and Sohar in the northwest – will further expand access across the country. Along with multibillion-dollar expansions of the existing amenities at Muscat International in the north and Salalah in the south, the new builds reflect the Omani government's desire to diversify away from a heavy dependence on oil and oil-related products towards other economic engines such as tourism. "There is a considerable upside to growing tourist visitor numbers to Oman. They bring additional spending power and geographic diversification of that spending power as well," says Bellew.

And it's not just tourist dollars that could help boost the domestic economy. "The tourist industry is certainly one important element of that, but there is also the development of the cargo industry too, as well as the enabling impact of good connectivity and how that drives commercial enterprise in general," he continues. "If you can enable or facilitate ease of travel for business people and traders to and from Oman, this will be catalytic in terms of developing trade." The expansion plans will also have a big impact on internal trade, too – after all, Muscat to Salalah is over 1050 kilometres by road. "It's a long way, and the main reason why we need to expand the regional airports as well as just the main international ones."

Attracting new partners and working with existing carriers to develop additional frequencies and new points of connection to stimulate such development has been a key area of focus for Bellew and his team over the past few years. "It's part and parcel of developing and driving the business for an airport, and something that we work at continually," he explains. "We work closely with the Ministry of Tourism, with individual operators in the tourism sector, existing airlines and potential airlines, not to mention cargo operators, industry associations and other interested parties." 

Operational excellence

As the operating company for the existing Muscat and Salalah airports and their expansion projects, as well as the firm behind the management of the four additional regional airports, OAMC has a vital role to play in the development of the country's infrastructure. As such, collaboration and communication in the development process is essential. "We are a major stakeholder, so we work quite closely with the government, the designers and with the project managers to establish what will be delivered because as the operator we're a bit like a new father," he explains. "The contractors, designers and project managers help us bring the child into the world; an important role, for sure, but ultimately that child will be our responsibility. We have to take it home, nurture it and make it successful."

According to Bellew, work on the modernisation program is progressing well, particularly at the key sites of Muscat and Salalah. "There's been a lot of enabling work, mainly civil works, that have been undertaken on the Muscat site," he says. The first construction contract in terms of aboveground works – dubbed MC1 – comprising ground improvement works, the construction of a new runway, taxiways, aprons, electrical substations, chiller plants, a fuel hydrant system and all electro-mechanical works, has been let to a combination of CCC and its joint venture partner TAV Construction. Recently it was announced that the maintenance, repair and operations facility will be designed by Ghafari of Chicago, and other projects are currently at the bid stage. Denmark's Cowi and the local Larsen Architects & Consulting Engineers prepared the concept designs for the project, while a joint venture between France's Aeroports de Paris and Pakistan's National Engineering Services Pakistan & Partners has been appointed project manager.

Salalah is at a similar stage of development, while the four new greenfield airports are at varying stages of progress. "All are basically at the preliminary concept design stage, although in some cases runways are being constructed," says Bellew. "For example, with Adam, we've already finished building the runway and ancillary work such as apron construction is underway right now. But the degree of progress to date varies between the various regional airports."

Of course, one of the biggest challenges of any airport modernisation program is how to simultaneously maintain service levels at existing airport facilities whilst expansion work is taking place. In this regard, Bellew believes Oman is in a fortunate position. "The expansion that's taking place on both the Muscat and Salalah sites is actually quite geographically separate," he explains. "Although on the same airfield, it's removed from where our terminal operations are at the moment. So here in Muscat, for example, we've got a site that is quite large and that already has an operational runway, and we essentially operate on the southern side of that site. If you look across to the northern side of the site towards the sea, you would see a lot of earthworks that have already been done in preparation for building the new runway and associated sites. And because of our parallel runway configuration, the new midfield terminal will be built over there too, essentially in an area that, during the construction phase at least, is really not part of the operational airfield terminal site. So we will be able to maintain the service at the existing airport and then integrate the new facilities as and when they come online."

Planning for growth

It goes to show the huge amount of planning that goes into such projects, and in this respect Bellew and his team have been working hard to ensure Oman's new airports don't suffer from the same teething troubles experienced by other high-profile terminal openings in recent years. "Alongside the operations people who are looking after the day-to-day running of the airport, I've also got a team of experienced specialists who are really driving the forward-looking preparation that has to be done to ensure that on day one, when we have to operate those airports successfully, we are ready," he says. "You can't afford to drop the ball, particularly when you've got the media looking at you, and this is why operational readiness and training (ORAT) is so important."

The aim of ORAT is to employ specialists focused on the process of 'de-risking' the opening of a new airport facility. While it's not a new concept, the emphasis currently being placed upon it is. "At the headline level you're bringing in a team of specialists to work with your own people and the various contractors and suppliers to ensure an opening that is as trouble-free as is possible to achieve," says Bellew. "They work with and through the various project management teams, but report to us as the operator. After all, as I said before, the paternity rests with us."

As Bellew readily acknowledges, overseeing such developments so that they reflect well on Oman and help facilitate the country's economic growth strategy is a big responsibility. But he's also quick to recognise the wider implications of operating an aviation infrastructure in the context of a regional and global airspace. For one thing, with such a huge amount being spent on expanding the aviation sector across the Gulf, air space management and having a large volume of international airports in a relatively small geographical area becomes more challenging. "For certain airports that are expanding considerably in this region, airspace management – and the attendant constraints that it brings – will be a challenge. Fortunately with Oman we are further to the east and are relatively uncluttered because of our geographic position."

Nonetheless, managing that growth in traffic will be key, and technology will play an important role in this regard – in fact, it is IT that is making the huge expansion of the region's infrastructure possible. "There is no doubt that air traffic management technology is changing, and allows for the safe intensification of traffic within a particular region," explains Bellew. "Separation between aircraft can be safely reduced, so therefore your number of flights into a particular airfield per hour can be improved. You can get more precise patterns being flown so that you don't get aircraft flying all over the sky and interrupting with other approach patterns, and so on. With new technology, the whole drive is first and foremost to reduce risk."

 A competitive landscape

The other impact of this region-wide upgrade of the aviation infrastructure is that competition is set to increase dramatically. The last few years have seen a number of Oman's near neighbours make some aggressive moves in terms of positioning to capture their share of a growing regional market, and some of those – Dubai in particular – have already established a role as a regional hub. It's a fact not lost on Bellew, a veteran of the private sector. "We are competing in a market that is very competitive and as all these new facilities come onstream, it will become even more competitive," he says. "However, I've lived all my life with competition and know the stimulator effect that it has. It acts as a spur to make sure that you try and achieve best performance, and so I think the disciplines of the marketplace are pretty fundamental to our growth in this region."

In fact, he is fairly bullish on prospects for the industry – optimism based on the fact that the market for air travel in the GCC has continued to hold up better than any other region in the world. "This is partly because it is still a relatively underdeveloped market," Bellew says. "We've also probably been less affected – not unaffected – by the ravages of the banking crisis. Air passenger numbers in Oman for the seven months ending July, when compared to the same period last year, are up by eight percent – which if you look at the international statistics is pretty good. And I think in general that's reflected across the rest of the region. To put that figure in context, last year we were growing at 18 percent, so of course we've seen a slowdown; but eight percent, even in normal market conditions, is still pretty respectable. If you compound that forward at 8-10 percent, it still means quite substantial growth in real terms over a number of years."

He also cites a number of other factors – including an appreciating oil price that will help bring wealth back into the oil-producing countries of the GCC, and the rise of near-neighbour India, only a few hours' flying time away – that will serve to boost the Omani economy and help drive the growth of the country's aviation sector.

Indeed, Bellew believes it is the region's unique location that will do most to ensure it remains competitive as a global transportation hub. "Geographically, the Gulf is pretty much at the centre of the world," he concludes. "If you were to draw a circle for say, six hours' flying time from Muscat, you would cover a significant proportion of Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa, so it's a pretty logical destination for an aviation hub. We're pretty confident as to the future."

Muscat International

The proposed new terminal at Muscat International Airport will be completed approximately by 2012 and have the capacity to handle 12 million passengers annually. Further expansions planned in three subsequent phases will ultimately boost the airport's capacity to 48 million passengers by 2050. The program aims to have the new control tower and second runway completed and operational by the end of 2010, and the passenger terminal and other buildings ready by the end of 2012.

The new Muscat International Airport would feature a new passenger terminal building with 32 boarding air bridges, a second runway, control tower, cargo terminal to handle 200,000 tons of cargo annually and a car parking capacity for 6000 cars. The passenger terminal, an imposing structure incorporating a blend of modern international class airport design elements and Omani traditional motifs, will be built between the two parallel runways.

The new terminal building will have a net floor area of 290,000 sqm and a capacity for 12 million passengers a year. Shopping arcades, restaurants, cafes, elegant lounges and an 80-bed airside hotel for transfer passengers are also envisaged. The airport will also feature a 101-metre-high control tower and a new air traffic management centre.

The project has been designed to allow for the airport to expand its capacity size for up to 48 million passengers annually through a second passenger terminal building planned in the next phase that will be linked to the first via a system of high speed trains. Furthermore, the existing runway at Muscat International Airport will be upgraded and supplemented with a new runway. It will be able to handle the world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380.

The project also includes a motorway to the airport with three lanes in either direction, complete with a companion interchange feeding into the existing motorways.

Site preparation

One of the great challenges in building the new airport in Muscat is to provide adequate drainage of the area; it seldom rains in Oman, but when it does, run off is heavy and sudden.  Water cascades down the mountains behind Muscat in great quantities and on into the Gulf of Oman.

One of the areas the rainwater passes to get to the sea is the stretch of plain on which the new runway will be built as it is a flat, low-lying area, separated from the ocean only by a coastal road, where water can temporarily pond in the shallowest spots after very infrequent but short-lived downpours.

As the first part of the project, the grounds are being raised by three metres to ensure the new runway and the new roads never end up underwater (during the extreme weather conditions of Cyclone Gonu in 2007, the existing runway and taxiway were not flooded). This is being done by importing 10-12 million cubic metres of desert sand and crushed rock onto the site.

In order to protect the rest of the airport site from flood surges, as well as a nearby development of luxury residential coastal properties, one of the first steps in the building process was to install three giant outlets, or culverts, to the Bay of Oman. The three culverts will have a combined capacity of 500 cubic metres of water a second.