DOING IT DIFFERENTLY IN THE GULF

摘要

Flights are still handled at the small, old terminal, and they are not docked at airbridges, because there are none. Instead, gangways are attached to the aircraft, and travelers step outside into the often oppressive heat and humidity before taking bused to the arrivals building. And this building hasn't changed much since it opened in 1973. It's quite a deja-vu for Oman Air CEO Paul Gregorowitsch, the 59-year-old Dutch airline executive who served as the Chief Operational Officer (COO) of Air Berlin (AB) in Germany from 2011 to 2013, before taking the top job in Muscat in August 2014. Air Berlin's major challenge was-and still is-the unopened new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport (BER), which was due to come online in 2012, but is now slated for late 2017. That also happens to be the revised target date for the new Muscat facility, which was delayed for much the same reasons as BER: being only partly finished, having insufficient installations in the terminal interiors, and facing hiccups with contractors.