The positioning of the State and Reasoning

            Oman is one of the states in the Middle East, which has taken their civil aviation more seriously than any other country. That’s why they have always kept working on the improvement of their civil aviation system to ensure they are competent enough to meet all international standards. Earlier the civil aviation matters of Sultanate of Oman were handled by Directorate-General of Civil Aviation and Air Navigation, but Oman realized that they need to restructure their civil aviation system by adopting the latest rules and regulations. The great thing about Oman is their awareness to understand the need for a new organization to manage their civil aviation system more efficiently and progressively. That’s why the old civil aviation authority was revamped and restructured by Oman and they came up with new authority in the year 2012 with the name of Public Authority for Civil Aviation (PACA). The real policy reason behind this major move was to achieve those goals, which are set in terms of tourism and aviation industry. The country needed a civil aviation system, which allows more capacity and efficiency in every relevant matter (CAPA - Centre for Aviation, 2012).

            A consultancy was hired by the government to make sure that new design of their civil aviation authority is efficient in all regards. In recent years, the flow of air traffic was increasing in Oman, and they need more capacity in their civil aviation system so that they can cope up with all needs. PACA was established to meet these demands by increasing air traffic at airports across Oman. The international safety standards are crucial to being met by every country's civil aviation system, and Oman’s PACA has been instrumental in following those international standards. PACA has been given all civil aviation related responsibilities like they have a role to supervise aviation industry in the country. They have to manage all the matters related to airports working in Sultanate of Oman. PACA also has a new role in collaborating with all stakeholders to do marketing for Oman's airports all around the world. Oman state has realized that the oil economy is not the way forward rather they have to develop other economic means to go away from their dependency on the oil sector. Tourism is one of the major ones in this regard, and PACA will initiate rules and regulations to facilitate all kind of tourism activities in Sultanate of Oman (CAPA - Centre for Aviation, 2012)

Figure 1

Source: https://centreforaviation.com/analysis/reports/oman-to-restructure-organisation-of-its-civil-aviation-sector-83149

            The above figure provided by CAPA -  Center for Civil Aviation shows the data from the year 2001 till the year 2011 regarding a number of passengers traveling in Oman. In 2001, fewer than 1000,000 passengers were traveling in the territory of Oman, and this number kept growing each year until 2011. Almost 45% increase has been observed in terms of Oman air passengers from the year 2001 to 20011.

            It shows that how the civil aviation system adopted by Oman has allowed them to liberalize as well as commercialize their civil aviation industry. The new organization PACA was aiming to revamp its aviation infrastructure by developing a great workforce with the help of training and development programs. Oman realized that with the commercialization of their civil aviation industry, they will have to develop new rules and regulations, which would facilitate tourism and relevant aviation matters for the country. They realized that future is going t be bright with more passengers traveling to Oman increasing number of flights and airline companies, handling their airline operations in Oman. That's why the heavy investment was done by the national development program of Oman in its infrastructure of civil aviation. The data from 2011 showed that in the last decade more than $ 26 billion has been invested by Oman. The country also came up with air service commercialization to promote tourism across the country. The other great initiative by the PACA is to develop airports and make new airports where needed. The development of Muscat International Airport and Salalah International Airport is one of the prime examples of this strategy. The country is coming up with the legal and regulatory framework, which would allow them to remain ahead in terms of having state of the art civil aviation system, which has the capacity to meet demands for many coming decades (CAPA - Centre for Aviation, 2012)

References of positioning of the State and Reasoning

Bodetti, A. (2018). A green future: Oman blazes a trail for environmentalism in the Arab world. Retrieved January 9, 2019, from https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2018/12/12/oman-blazes-trail-for-environmentalism-in-the-arab-world

CAPA - Centre for Aviation. (2012). Oman to restructure organisation of its civil aviation sector. Retrieved January 9, 2019, from https://centreforaviation.com/analysis/reports/oman-to-restructure-organisation-of-its-civil-aviation-sector-83149

Daily FT. (2013). Importance of civil aviation for economy and people. Retrieved January 8, 2019, from http://www.ft.lk/article/225396/Importance-of-civil-aviation-for-economy-and-people

PACA. (2019). About PACA. Retrieved January 8, 2019, from https://www.paca.gov.om/paca/about-paca

Paca.gov. (2018). The Sultanate of Oman Celebrated International Civil Aviation Day on 7 December at Muscat International Airport—A Place of Pride and Honour for the Sultanate at the Regional. Retrieved January 9, 2019, from https://www.paca.gov.om/media-1/news/2018/sultanate-of-oman-celebrates-international-civil-aviation-day-7-december-muscat-international-airport-a-place-of-pride-and-honor-for-the-sultanate-at-the-regional-and-global-level

Paca.gov.om. (2019). Mission, Vision & Values. Retrieved January 8, 2019, from https://www.paca.gov.om/paca/mission-vision-values

Times News Service. (2018). Legal nod needed to fly drones in Oman. Retrieved January 9, 2019, from https://timesofoman.com/article/126130

Times of Oman. (2017). Oman Air carried more than 8.5m passengers. Retrieved January 8, 2019, from https://timesofoman.com/article/125019