Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Salalah International Airport (ICAO: OOSA, IATA: SLL) serves Oman's southern Dhofar Governorate as the country's secondary gateway after Muscat, built on the site of a former Royal Air Force airfield. For a simulator pilot, its single long, lit runway with ILS approaches at each end, framed by the Dhofar mountains and the Arabian Sea coastal plain, makes for a striking approach, especially during the Khareef monsoon season when the surrounding hills turn green.
Salalah Airport lies on the coastal plain of Dhofar Governorate in southern Oman, a few kilometres northeast of Salalah city. Operated as part of the Oman Airports group, it functions as the Sultanate's secondary international airport behind Muscat. The field began life as a British military airstrip and today handles scheduled regional traffic alongside seasonal charter services, giving it a mix of long history and modern infrastructure that makes it an interesting waypoint for a VFR or IFR flight through southern Arabia.
Salalah sits on the Salalah coastal plain in the Dhofar Governorate, close to the Arabian Sea, roughly 5.5 kilometres northeast of Salalah's city centre. The airport is bordered by the Ittin plain and backed by the Dhofar mountain range, which rises sharply inland and turns lush green during the Khareef monsoon between July and September. The Ittin road runs past the airport and provides the principal ground access route, with the Salalah Festival Ground and Salalah Garden Mall among the notable landmarks in the vicinity.
Salalah has a single physical runway, 07/25, oriented broadly east-west. It is a hard-surfaced runway 13,101 feet in length, lit, and served by an ILS from both directions, reflecting its role as an international airport capable of handling large commercial aircraft.
Pilots should expect to work Approach and Radar on 119.1 MHz and Tower on 118.2 MHz. The runway is equipped with ILS at both thresholds, supporting instrument approaches to 07 and 25 in addition to visual arrivals.
The airport is readily identified from the air by its position on the flat Ittin coastal plain, sandwiched between the Arabian Sea and the steep escarpment of the Dhofar mountains, which provide a prominent line of high ground a short distance inland. The Ittin road and its flyover run close by the airport boundary, and the Salalah Festival Ground, its associated amphitheatre, and the Salalah Garden Mall are useful ground landmarks near the field for orientation on approach.
An airfield was first established at Salalah in 1935 by the British Royal Air Force to support operations for the Sultan of Oman, and aircraft based there were active during the Jebel Akhdar War of 1954 to 1957 and the Dhofar War from 1962 to 1976. The airport opened to civilian traffic in 1977, initially handling only domestic flights from Muscat along with a few charter flights to the UAE and Qatar. Oman Air Services began services to Salalah in 1982, and the first Oman Air flight from Muscat arrived in April 1993. The airport was granted international status in 2003, the same year Oman Air began scheduled flights to Dubai, and in 2004 Air India became the first carrier to operate non-seasonal international flights to Salalah, serving Kozhikode and later Cochin. A new terminal building was constructed from 2011, with operations at the current facility beginning on 15 June 2015 and the airport formally opened on 11 November 2015, offering capacity for around two million passengers a year, expandable to six million.
Salalah continues to operate as Oman's second-ranking international airport, handling scheduled regional flights along with seasonal intercontinental charter services, particularly busy during the Khareef monsoon tourist season from July to September when the surrounding Dhofar region draws large numbers of visitors.