OMAN AIR: Doubles the number of flights they offer

This middle east airline is mounting a sustained expansion plan. Oman Air only appeared on my radar when I was booking a trip to Europe for the middle of this year. If I was prepared to have two stopovers, Oman Air would get me there in a little longer time, but for nearly half the price of a competitor like Emirates. With a trip on Oman Air ahead of me, I have been monitoring their media releases.

With the announcement of this ‘summer’ schedule, they are more than doubling the number of flights out of their hub in Muscat, Oman. That’s 60,000 more seats each week.

New Destinations

Oman Air is adding four new destinations out of its home base in Muscat. These are being rolled out from March:

• Chittagong, end of March, 4/week
• Lucknow, August, 12/week
• Maldives, end of June, 4/week
• Thiruvananthapuram, August, 5/week

Greater Frequency

See the extent of their frequency expansion below.

• Chennai – 2 x daily from end of March
• Cochin – 2 x daily from end of March
• Dhaka – 2 x daily from end of March – larger wide-body aircraft
• Hyderabad  – 2 x daily from end of March
• Istanbul – 2 x daily from end of March
• Kozhikode – 2 x daily from end of March
• Kuala Lumpur – 10 x week from June
• Kwauit – 2 x daily from June
• Moscow – Daily from end of March – larger wide-body aircraft
• Mumbai – 2 x daily from end of March – larger wide-body aircraft
• Paris – 6 x week from the end of March
• Phuket – Daily from end of March – larger wide-body aircraft
• Salalah – 5 x daily from July
• Trabzon – Daily from end of March

2PAXfly Takeout

That’s quite the increase in flights. They must be bringing a bunch of aircraft back on line. The route to Phuket was only started back in mid-November of 2022, so it must be doing well for them to up the frequency to daily.

For an airline that only started in 1981, its been a slow burn of expansion. The airline now has 51 aircraft with an average age of slightly more than 7 years. It has a fleet of 9 Dreamliners, with 3 more on order. It also has a few aircraft on ice, including six 737s and one A330. Presumably they are coming out of storage to achieve these greater frequencies and new destinations.

Oman Air is getting pretty good reviews for its seats and service. Combine that with some competitive airfares, and it may be on a winning streak.

I won’t be flying with them until June, so I will report back then on their hard product and quality of product.