The airline's first aircraft, an Airbus A320, arrived in Muscat on November 18, 2016 to coincide with the country’s National Day, which celebrates independence from Portuguese control in 1650. It will be followed by two additional aircraft to support its initial launch plans.
The UK has always been one of the key markets for Oman Air and is one of just five country markets it serves in Europe. The airline currently offers flights to Frankfurt and Munich in Germany; Milan in Italy; Paris in France, Zurich in Switzerland and London, with the airline describing the UK capital as a flagship route.
From the start of the forthcoming winter schedule, British Airways is to introduce new non-stop flights from London Heathrow to both Doha, Qatar and Muscat, Oman. Both destinations are already part of the airline’s network but are currently served with one-stop direct flight routings via Bahrain and Abu Dhabi.
This new slot pair has been reportedly purchased from Air France-KLM and will provide an early morning scheduling option for the Middle East carrier and allow it to introduce a second daily rotation on the Muscat – London city pair.
Muscat International Airport broke the one million passenger per month milestone in August 2015 in a strong year of growth for the largest two airports in the Sultanate of Oman.
Under its revised schedule, Oman Air will introduce second daily rotations between Muscat and Bangalore and Kochi; will boost weekly frequencies between Muscat and Lucknow from seven to eleven; will increase flights between Muscat and Jaipur to ten weekly from the current daily offering; and will add one additional weekly flight on the Muscat – Goa route to offer a daily schedule.
The Gulf carrier received its first aircraft from the US manufacturer on October 7, 2015 and the aircraft entered service in the early hours of October 11, 2015 on the WY901 rotation between Muscat and Salalah. It operated three return flights on the route that day and is scheduled to repeat that schedule today (October 12, 2015) and through to the end of the month.
There are not many countries in the world where six new runways will be constructed and four brand new regional airports opened for traffic in a decade. But, that is exactly what is underway in the Sultanate of Oman over the past few years as the country seeks to diversify its economy away from relying on its oil and gas resources and to focus more on other sectors such as tourism and other areas of business.
