Let's start with something that surprises almost everyone who hears it.
Let's start with something that surprises almost everyone who hears it.
Right now, in April 2026, Muscat International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the entire Middle East. Not because nothing is happening. Because everything is happening — and Muscat is one of the last functioning major hubs in a region where airports from Dubai to Doha to Bahrain have been severely disrupted or shut down entirely.
Lufthansa is flying through Muscat. Qatar Airways is using it as a temporary alternative hub. Air India Express is running 28 weekly flights from Muscat to Indian cities. British Airways operated repatriation flights out of the city in March. When the central Gulf corridor closed, Muscat didn’t close with it — it became the southern bypass that kept international aviation alive in the region.
That is an extraordinary thing to sit with. The city you are asking whether it’s safe to fly into has, over the past five weeks, been the gateway that everyone else has been flying through to escape the wider chaos.
That doesn’t mean Muscat is without risk. It is not. But it does mean the picture is considerably more complex — and more specific — than the headlines suggest. This article is our attempt to give you that specificity.
The first thing to understand about Muscat’s safety right now is that the geography matters enormously.
Oman is a large, diverse country. It shares a southern border with Yemen — and that border area has carried a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory for years, long before the current crisis. The port city of Salalah in the Dhofar region, roughly 1,000 kilometres southwest of Muscat, is the area most directly exposed to the current conflict: drone strikes hit the Port of Salalah on 28 March 2026. The industrial port of Duqm, on Oman’s central coast, has also been affected. The northern enclave of Musandam has had its airport suspended for commercial flights.
Muscat is none of those places.
The capital sits on the northeastern coast, tucked between the Hajar mountains and the Gulf of Oman. It is approximately 500 kilometres from the Strait of Hormuz at its closest point. It is geographically and strategically the most sheltered part of Oman. And critically, it is the only part of the country where the US Embassy’s current shelter-in-place guidance does not apply — Embassy personnel are restricted to movement within 50 kilometres of the capital, meaning Muscat is the one place in the country they are still permitted to be.
That is not an accident. It is a considered, real-time risk assessment by people whose job is exactly that.
We have spoken to travellers in Muscat as recently as this week. Here is what they describe.
The Muttrah Corniche is busy at dusk, as it has always been — the harbour lights, the call to prayer, the low sound of the sea against the old dhow moorings. The souk is trading. The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is open to visitors. Hotels are operating at full capacity, many of them busier than usual because of the volume of transit passengers and delayed travellers using Muscat as an unexpected staging post. Restaurants are full. The roads are moving. People are getting on with their lives in the way people do in Muscat — with a particular unhurried dignity that feels almost deliberate in its calm.
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, which updated its Oman guidance on 1 April 2026, confirms that commercial flights are operating from Muscat to the UK. Its guidance for British nationals in Oman is to exercise increased caution — not to leave immediately, not to shelter in place, but to stay aware, monitor official channels, and follow local authority advice.
What the FCDO has noted is that press reports have included missile and drone activity at commercial ports and industrial areas in Duqm, Salalah and Sohar. Sohar is worth noting: it is approximately 220 kilometres north of Muscat, and the fact that it has been mentioned in advisories is a reason for heightened awareness — not panic, but awareness.
To be direct: Muscat itself has not been struck. But something happened in Sohar, and Sohar is in the same country, and the situation is fast-moving.
Before this crisis, Muscat was quietly one of the safest capitals in the world.
The Numbeo Crime Index ranked it among the top ten safest cities globally. Oman sat third in the Middle East and North Africa region on the Global Peace Index, 37th in the world. Violent crime in Muscat was — and remains — genuinely rare. A strict legal framework, a deeply hospitable culture, and a government that took tourism infrastructure seriously had made the city a destination that solo travellers, families and first-time visitors to the region could approach with real confidence.
None of that has evaporated. The things that made Muscat extraordinary as a city — its layering of old and new, its frankincense-and-salt air, the way the white-washed buildings catch the evening light against the mountains, the extraordinary warmth of Omani hospitality — those things are still there.
What has changed is the context around the city. The neighbourhood has become dangerous. The city itself has not — yet. And the distance between those two truths is exactly what every traveller needs to navigate right now.
This is arguably the most important practical issue for anyone considering Muscat right now, because it has two distinct dimensions.
Getting in is still possible. Muscat International Airport is open and operational. Air India Express, IndiGo, Qatar Airways (operating limited services using Muscat as a temporary hub), SalamAir (on certain routes) and several other carriers continue to fly. If you are travelling from India, the UK, or certain European destinations, there are still viable routes into Muscat.
Getting out is where it gets complicated.
Oman Air has suspended routes to Dubai, Doha, Bahrain, Dammam, Kuwait, Baghdad, Amman and others through at least March 31, with further extensions likely. Khasab airport in Musandam is suspended for commercial flights entirely. Lufthansa Group, including Lufthansa and Swiss, has suspended Muscat service until October 24, 2026 — the longest published suspension of any major European carrier for any Gulf destination.
What that means in practice: if you arrive in Muscat and the situation changes sharply, your options for leaving may be more limited than you expect. The routes you used to fly may not be available. The connection you assumed you could make through Dubai or Doha may not exist.
This is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to plan. Anyone travelling to Muscat right now — for any reason — should have an exit strategy that does not depend on a single airline, a single route, or a single hub. Know your alternatives. Istanbul. Mumbai. London direct. Have those options mapped before you arrive.
Oman Air is currently offering free rebooking on affected routes for travel through May 2026, with full refunds available on cancelled flights. If you have tickets, understand your rights under this policy before making any decision.
Rather than summarising official guidance in general terms, here is what the major governments are specifically saying as of early April 2026. Always check your own government’s primary source before making any travel decision.
United States: Level 3 — Reconsider Travel. Non-emergency US Embassy staff have been ordered to depart Oman. The Embassy in Muscat remains open and providing routine citizen services. Shelter-in-place guidance is in effect for all of Oman outside Muscat. Americans are urged to enrol in the STEP programme, complete the Crisis Intake Form, and have a departure plan that does not rely on US government assistance.
United Kingdom: Exercise increased caution. Commercial flights from Muscat to the UK are operating. The FCDO updated its guidance on 1 April 2026 specifically to reflect the regional escalation. Consular emergency line: +968 2460 9000 (24/7).
Australia: Orange — Reconsider your need to travel. Shelter-in-place for those in Duqm and within 100 kilometres of Salalah. Australians are advised to avoid US diplomatic missions and locations associated with US or Israeli interests. The most recent update notes that the regional conflict is likely to escalate further.
Canada: Avoid non-essential travel. Specific warning about avoiding government, military and energy infrastructure, including oil production facilities.
France / EASA: French aviation authorities advise operators against the Muscat FIR. EASA’s conflict zone bulletin covers Oman at all altitudes.
The pattern across every government: Muscat is the safest part of an unsafe wider picture. No government is currently saying “do not go to Muscat specifically.” But no government is saying it’s business as usual either.
The question “should I go?” only has a personal answer, because it depends on factors only you can weigh: your nationality, your risk tolerance, your reason for travelling, your flexibility, your travel insurance, and whether your visit is essential or discretionary.
Here is the framework we give our own clients right now.
Essential travel (work commitments, family emergency, repatriation) — Muscat is still reachable. Use flexible fares. Register with your embassy before you go. Have a departure plan that uses at least two alternative routes. Keep your documents accessible and your phone charged.
Discretionary leisure travel — we recommend waiting. Not forever. The desert has been there for millennia. Muscat will be there on the other side of this crisis, and it will be extraordinary when you get there. But booking a non-refundable leisure trip into a city whose wider region is actively experiencing drone and missile activity, whose airline has suspended routes across the Gulf, and whose neighbours are managing an ongoing armed conflict — that is a risk that, for most people, isn’t worth taking right now.
Travellers already in Muscat — if you are there now, stay calm. Stay informed. Follow your embassy’s updates. Do not assume the situation won’t change. Make sure you know how to leave if you need to. The city is functioning. You are not in immediate danger. But you are in a region where that could change without much warning, and the time to prepare for that possibility is now, not when something happens.
There is something about Muscat — and about Oman more broadly — that makes this moment particularly painful for anyone who loves the place.
This is a country that has spent decades building something genuinely rare in the Gulf: a culture of peace, a tradition of mediation, a reputation for being the room where enemies come to talk. Oman has maintained diplomatic relationships with Iran, Israel, the United States and its Gulf neighbours simultaneously, at a time when most of those parties could barely be in the same building. Muscat has been the back channel for more sensitive conversations than will ever be publicly known.
That is the city you are asking about. A city that has, for fifty years, made itself useful to the world by staying out of its wars. A city that was, until five weeks ago, one of the most confidently safe destinations in the entire region.
The conflict is not of Oman’s making. The risk is not of Muscat’s choosing. But the neighbourhood changed on 28 February 2026, and responsible travel advice has to reflect that — even when the city itself is still burning frankincense and setting out the coffee at dusk, which it is.
Whatever you decide, do these things today:
Muscat is the safest city in an unsafe region. It is functioning. Its airport is open. Its streets are calm. Its people are, as they have always been, among the most welcoming on earth.
It is also inside a conflict zone’s gravitational field, in a region where drones have struck Omani territory multiple times in the past five weeks, where Lufthansa has suspended service until October, and where the Australian government says the regional conflict is likely to escalate further.
Both of those things are true. Holding them both — without collapsing into either false reassurance or unnecessary alarm — is the only honest position available.
We will continue updating this guidance as the situation evolves. The world is still worth exploring. Muscat is still worth loving. Come back to it when the sky is clear again.
Updated: 2 April 2026. Always verify the latest guidance with your government’s official travel advisory before making any travel decision. Emergency contacts: US citizens — +1-202-501-4444 | UK citizens in Oman — +968 2460 9000 | Emergency services in Oman — 9999
