Oman Airports launches Sawaeed Safety Campaign 2023

In October 2023, Oman Airports launched their Sawaeed safety campaign for a five-day period, in cooperation with the strategic partners. The campaign’s aim was to enhance the culture of safety in the workplace, and to encourage employees to report any operational risks they encounter in their daily work, while suggesting ways to mitigate these.

This year, the campaign was launched under the slogan “Protect Yourself”. All employees of Oman Airports, Transom Handling, Transom SATS Cargo, Swissport, Oman Air Engineering, Salam Air Engineering, fuel suppliers, the Royal Oman Police, and other partners and contractors participated in the campaign.

While Oman Airports launched the 1st edition of the campaign in 2019 under the “Sawaeed” name, this initial event was stalled due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. (It was also placed on hold in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic). The campaign was relaunched in 2022, and was subsequently held this year – and will continue to be held in the coming years.

Khalid bin Khamis bin Hamed Al Mahrooqi, Director of the HSE Department at Oman Airports, emphasized the importance of the campaign, as it promotes a culture of safety, and an increased awareness on the importance of safety, in the Oman Airports working environment. It also involves the wider airport community in Oman in terms of accident prevention and accident mitigation programs.

Al Mahrooqi added that, “Safety is highly valued by Oman Airports and the country’s aviation institutions, under the umbrella of which we are working. At all our airports, and through the appropriate training, awareness, and experience, our aim is to constantly increase our staff competencies with regards to health and safety values.”

Additionally, Al Mahrooqi pointed out that the HSE Department has set specific standards to honour employees and teams who enhance safety standards in the workplace through practicing safety values; who communicate safety culture through risk-awareness events; and who create initiatives to support aviation safety procedures, principles and guidelines.
Al Mahrooqi confirmed that these awareness campaigns come in harmony with international organizations’ aims to sustain these educational efforts in the airport environment. “Holding these awareness campaigns for employees in the airports sector will help achieve the best practices in safety and thus maintain our airports’ reputation as a safe working environment with reduced accident rates.”

A set of criteria was identified to evaluate the entities participating in the campaign, including reducing the number of accidents and reported accidents, showing initiatives on HSE and aviation safety, proposing ways of enhancing safety, participating in accidents prevention programs, adopting best HSE practices and adhering to proper personal protective equipment and safety requirements at airports. Additionally, the criteria include environmental protection initiatives such as digitalization, waste recycling, implementation of safety management systems in the workplace, adopting best HSE practices, maintaining the serviceability of equipment and enhancing safety in the work zone. The HSE Department team evaluates the nominees selected to compete for the Safety Program Award.

The campaign was launched at the training centre (Al Shamikhat Hall), and was followed by visits to the airport building. During the campaign, participants also pay visits to both the southern and northern sides of the airside of Muscat International’s apron, as well as to the airport landside.

The closing ceremony for the 2023 edition of Sawaeed was held at the training center (Al Shamikhat Hall), and accompanied by the distribution of awards for the Safety Award Program. During the field visits, some souvenirs were distributed along with awareness lectures given at the training centre during the campaign days, in cooperation with a number of concerned institutions.