Yesterday I wrote about how Oman Air just paid $75 million for a slot at London Heathrow, which is the most expensive slot purchase ever at the airport.This will allow Oman Air to operate a second daily frequency to London Heathrowat the most desirable times, with a flight landing at Heathrow at 5:30AM, and departing…
Continue reading: Oman Air Wants To Start Flying To New York
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Lucky, do their 787's have crew rests? They would need those if they wished to fly to U.S non-stop. If they don't then it would probably be a 1 stop
Why did they pay so much for a LHR slot in order to maximise connections from London to the US if they don't have any partnerships to take passengers from London to the US?
Oman Air obviously wont be joining Oneworld given both RJ and QR are already there. Star already has enough members so I guess SkyTeam would be the best fit?
I flew Oman Air two years ago and was impressed by the hard product but not so much by the soft product (FA got my order wrong, asked for water in middle of flight but FA got it at least 10-15 mins later, etc.) Back then, EWR was in their route map since they partnered with Virgin Atlantic at the time (passengers would fly OmanAir MCT-LHR and then transfer to VS for LHR-EWR).
Who knows? OmanAir might start more partnerships similar to how Emirates partnered with AS. I still remember the time before the AS partnership when getting points to redeem EK F was really tough.
Are you crediting your Oman Air flights to Etihad Guest or Oman Air's own frequent flyer program? I credited my OmanAir flights to OmanAir's Sindbad and now have these orphaned miles.
Besides transporting workers to the gulf states, their entire business model consists of taking tourists to Southeast Asia from Europe at rock bottom prices. You paid what- $1700 roundtrip in business from Frankfurt to Bangkok? While the service is nice and lovely and all that, they are a rock bottom player going after bargain basement low yield traffic. They dilute fares and revenues that any alliance member would want. It's absolutely NOT surprising to me that they lose money, nor is it surprising that nobody really wants to get involved with them from an alliance perspective (conversely it's shocking that one world accepted Qatar Airways, as they've killed the margins and wrecked profitability on many routes for member airlines). Oman is a lovely country and Oman Air is a great airline, but there's no way their business model leads to profitability nor makes them attractive as much of an alliance partner.
Check out Nizwa too when you are next in Oman. Oman is clearly one of the jewels of the Middle Easr.
@Lucky - Even though they're really week in the Miles game and only partner with Etihad for miles, their code share game is actually pretty good.
http://www.omanair.com/en/about-us/alliances-and-partners
Although Gulf Air is not a member of OW, one can easily redeem AA miles for Gulf Air flight through AA-Gulf Air partnership (well, if one ever wants to do instead of choosing EY or QR). As someone who is based on Middle East for a while, it’d be nice to see that Oman Air has this kind of partnership with one of US-based airlines and allows us to redeem US carrier’s miles for Oman Air flight.
Having a huge number of destinations (which is not "flooding the market") is key to have a profitable hub operation. Having too many seats with too few destinations (which is an actual flooding of the market, as validated by the distressed fares) is a recipe for poor profitability. And paying $75m for a pair for LHR slots, with a small number of beyond-hub destinations? Probably not a totally smart thing.
Oman should find a way to partner with Alaska Air, who partners a lot of non-alliance people, like Emirates, Hainan, etc. lol. I guess if they can get to US, this might still be possible to work out.
Agree on Muscat. I visited there in October (Or sometime in 2015, I lose track) and absolutely loved it. One of those places that truly surprised me. Very undervalued place to visit.
Oman air should start using Salalah as the second hub, the new airport has good transfer facilities. The Salalah hub can connect Indian subcontinent with MENA, with very good flying times.
Oman Air is building a conflicting business model, with its vision and function in diametrically opposite directions. The airline has a great product, which is sold cheaper than even the lowest of low cost carriers. They heavily depend on price to sell rather than marketing product competencies. Oman air has one of the highest cost structure in GCC region, whereas their productivity is lowest just above Kuwait.Oman cannot flaunt an airline of the size they are forseeing, and sooner than later they are going in the Gulf air way of self doom.
As Lucky is hoping for direct flights between the US and Oman with Oman Air, I hate to destroy his dreams... 🙁
WY CEO Paul Gregorowitsch said yesterday on an event in Switzerland, that Oma nAir has no plans to introduce flights to the US or Australia. Despite "other carriers in the region", Oman Air rather will add frequencies to existing destinations than introduce new destinations.
Source: Abouttravel.ch (sorry, only in German)
Sure , high time Oman Air need to operate between Houston USA and Muscat.Houston has a large Asian population and they mostly depend on Emirates and Qatar Airways to travel to middle east hubs.Golden opportunity for Oman air to tap this huge Houston market.