Muscat Seeb Airport

So disappointed and so inconvenienced! We get our boarding pass, we go thru customs, we go thru security and then we walk to the end of the airport to our gate - gate 22. We have 90 minutes before our flight departs and our gate is roped off. We are not able to enter to sit at the seats! Neither are gate 20/39/21/23/24. Basically all the gates at this end. People are crowding around, sitting on the floor when all of these seats at all of our gates are empty. Yes, we asked the employees. No, we cannot go and sit in the seats. We will not be allowed to enter our gate until we board, so what is the point of all of these empty seats. I took pictures if anyone is ever the least bit concerned about poor customer service.

Arrived from Bahrain. Very long taxi from runway to the remote parking stand (no piers at this airport). You buy your visa on arrival at the Travelex Bureau De Change. Passport control has got much slower with absolutely no sense of urgency. Suitcases scanned before leaving Baggage Hall. Arrivals Hall has usual selection of car rental, hotels, coffee shops etc. Check-in fairly straightforward then Passport Control (slightly quicker leaving) followed by a quick hand luggage scan. There seems to be a lack display boards announcing flights to there was a steady flow of airport officials calling flights and encouraging people to the correct gate. Duty Free has the usual selection of alcohol, cigarettes, purfumes, watches/gifts. There are a number of different eating opportunities scattered around. Boarding is via buses to the remote stands which seem to take longer than was needed. It will be interesting to see what the new airport is like when it opens.

We were travelling in a group. Our flight route was JED to KUL via MCT. Arrived at MCT early in the morning and our next flight to KUL was during the night. We had a half day tour around MCT before our next flight. Immigration on arrival at MCT is painfully slow considering only around 50 people (two groups including ours) queuing up with almost all immigration counters open. Immigration officers seems lazy and it takes almost an hour to clear. The same thing happens during departure. In fact an immigration officer at one of the counters seemed to be purposely inspecting the passports slowly, while at the same time looking around aimlessly and chit chit-chatting with her colleague at the next counter. Disappointed with the attitude and service provided by the officers. Would consider not to travel via MCT ever again.

I arrived at this airport at midnight and stayed there for about 3 hrs as a transit passenger. It was rush hour and many flights were arriving with most of the passengers as connecting. The airport is really too small to accommodate that number of passengers especially during the vacation season. Something that surprised me was that there were no proper announcements made and even if they were made we could not hear them properly. A guy was running around the airport calling them. Things got very bad during the boarding time. There was no place to stand because the boarding gates are located just a few feet apart, the staff were very rude. Hope these things improve when the new airport opens.

Terminal at Muscat looks grand but this is misleading. The toilets are inadequate and not maintained or properly equipped. For the men's toilets, there were queues to use the urinals and the cubicles. The hand dryers were not working. The cubicles had water on the floor and on the toilet seats. There was no toilet paper. The attendants merely said dryers not working. They seemed to make no effort to clean the cubicles. The money exchange staff have no customer focus. I used Costa Coffee where the staff were courteous and helpful. Duty free staff ignored customers and chatted to colleagues - security seemed thorough.

We have travelled to Muscat from the UK three times in 6 years. The arrivals process has always been ok although we are always met by a representative from our travel company who processes the entry visas for us whilst we wait in a lounge. However departures leaves a lot to be desired as the security procedures are incredibly slow and unnecessarily repetitive. We had our hand luggage scanned three times for some reason as we passed through check in, passport control and entry to the gate plus our boarding passes were checked both as we entered the gate and again as we were leaving the gate despite the fact there was no way we could have entered the gate other than through the first checkpoint. This constant checking leads to very long and slow queues of people but the staff seem oblivious and do nothing to speed it all up. There is no fast track service for business class travellers and queue management is a joke with passengers at the back of one queue being brought to the front when finally a second desk was opened up at passport control leaving passengers ahead in the original queue served later. When our bags were being scanned the second time some travellers ahead of us had a package that needed to be unwrapped and checked by the guy manning the scanner. This took ages and all the travellers behind this had to wait to get their bags scanned as there was no-one else to help although plenty of staff were standing around chatting together. Our flight was 30 minutes late leaving which is hardly surprising given the inefficiencies at the airport. Let's hope the new terminal improves the passenger experience when it finally opens.

What a chaotic airport. It is still the old airport as the new one is not completed yet. We were transferring to another flight and having to go through security was a nightmare. Only 3 lanes open for scanning and no orderly queues. We barely made our connecting flight as it was a mass of people, pushing and shoving. We will avoid flying through Muscat in the future. At least until the new airport is open.

A lot of people rate airports based on their facilities etc, however I suspect most like myself, want to get in and landside as fast as possible. Arrived on the BA service connecting from Abu Dhabi. Touchdown at 11.15pm, promptly spent another 15 mins or so taxiing to the "gate" (bus in this case). At the VOA line, only two people processing payments with multiple flights arriving after us. This was followed by an even longer line at immigration, just 3 counters open and I estimate that they spent about 5, if not more minutes per passenger. All in all, 1.5 hours from entering the building to getting my bag (which as others have noted are just sitting on the floor with no indication as to which flight they correspond to as it's so longer after the flight arrived). Some hope that a new airport will improve efficiency, I have my doubts about this. The issues are with the staffing and lazy attitude.

Muscat airport is very basic and old, I know they are building a new terminal and it will come just in time, while their Arab neighbors are presenting great service on their airports, these one is stuck in the 80's. Staff are friendly and always willing to help but I will agree with some travelers here, immigration takes forever. They keep chatting with each other or texting on their mobiles, they don't pay attention to their job, it took me almost 1 hour and a half to go through immigration and another 30 minutes to find my bag on a sea of bags, the arrival area is packed with travelers and their families, very difficult to find a taxi driver available. Will do my best to avoid this airport in the future.

This airport appeared old and a little basic, ok for a short transfer, but I wouldn't like to be stuck there for a long transfer. A decent selection of food outlets and a few stores selling duty free and gifts.