I had the chance to fly Oman Air business class a couple of years ago, and had excellent flights on them. The airline often publishes reasonable business class fares between Europe and Asia, and has a top notch hard and soft product. They’re one of only a few airlines in the world to have Apex Suites in business class, which is one of the best business class seats out there.
The airline also has a first class cabin on just a few of their A330s. It’s a bit strange that they do, since their first class looks only marginally better than their business class, both in terms of the seat and service. A reader wrote a guest trip report about his experience in Oman Air first class, and it looked underwhelming (a couple of pictures from the trip report are below).
Last September Daniel wrote about how Oman Air plans to introduce an all new first class suite on some of their 787-9s. I’m especially interested in Oman Air’s new first class since it’s one of only two remaining airlines I still need to book in first class. Obviously I’d love to experience their newest cabin.
However, for the past month or so I was under the impression that Oman Air had given up on introducing a new first class. The airline recently had a management change, which also often leads to a change in strategy. Their business class is so excellent and they don’t operate any ultra longhaul flights, so to me it doesn’t really make sense for them to have first class.
The 787-9 they took delivery of in January was supposed to feature the new first class, though it didn’t. This lead me to believe that they scrapped the idea.
We now have an update on this. CAPA notes that Oman Air’s acting CEO, Abdulaziz Al-Raisi, has said that two 787-9s will feature first class suites, and the first of those will be delivered in June 2018. Oman Air plans to have eight first class suites on these planes, along with 24 business class seats (as opposed to the 30 they have on their other 787-9s).
I guess I’ll be waiting for this new cabin to be introduced to try Oman Air first class. Not only am I excited about Oman Air introducing their new first class, but Muscat Airport’s new terminal is also opening in March, so I should be able to check that out as well.
Bottom line
Oman Air’s new 787-9 first class should debut in June 2018. I’m surprised Oman Air is following through with their plans to introduce a new 787-9 first class, given their industry leading business class. Since their business class hard and soft product is so good, I hope they go for something great, since otherwise there’s just not that much of a difference (I doubt they will, but one can dream!).
How good do you think Oman Air’s new first class product will be?
(Tip of the hat to ZZ)
Flew Oman biz class from LHR to Kochi via Muscat in late Jan. Great service and seat which is a bit dated. New terminal at Muscat is scheduled to open on Mar. 25. Relatively small. Capacity is 12 million per year. Small size should make it easy to transit.
Don't bother with muscat as its way to hot and makes travelling difficult.
Not alot to see however muttrah has a great vibe about it and then get out of muscat up into the mountains.
@Lucky, if possible, do a trip report about the city of Muscat as well as an airport review (or photos) and Oman Air F class. Looking forward to it!
Thanks for crediting me for informing you about this :) Really love it when bloggers show great journalism integrity. I suppose you just stumbled on the article coincidentally after I mentioned it in the comments?
@ ZZ -- I had eight different people link me to this (in the comments section, by email, and Facebook). It's certainly not my intent to not give credit, though tipping the hat to that many people also gets a bit tedious. My general approach is to tip the hat when only one or two people tell me about something, but when I get a lot of tips on something, I assume it's widespread enough....
@ ZZ -- I had eight different people link me to this (in the comments section, by email, and Facebook). It's certainly not my intent to not give credit, though tipping the hat to that many people also gets a bit tedious. My general approach is to tip the hat when only one or two people tell me about something, but when I get a lot of tips on something, I assume it's widespread enough. So I really do appreciate the heads up and went ahead and updated the post to tip the hat to you, though hopefully you can also understand this from my side...
@Endre I'm not hating... but why do you feel the need to say that every time you post? Probably 50% of the readers of this blog are very frequent first class pax... What's your point?
You have never posted anything of substance other than "the food is good" so your credibility is nil.
Are you that much of a simpleton? or... could it be that you don't actually fly much (F or otherwise)?
Is the assumption that they'd fly this to LHR?
They're current longhaul destinations of BKK and MNL don't seem like theyd support luxury/business demand and I dont think they currently offer first to FRA/CDG.
Of course I'd love to see this open up to JFK, but I'm skeptical.
What happened to the JFK flights they were supposed to start in 2018?
I am a very frequent First Class traveller (haters gonna hate). I might give this one a try. I hope the food in their lounge and on board is worth it. Waiting for their new airport to finally open
I guess it won't be that bad. Look at Kuwait Airways or Saudia....should be similar in think. The problem should rather be, that they will most probably use for the premium route to LHR. If that's true, you wont be able to use the cheap CAI fares an ex CMB they rarely offer good prices in F.
Nevertheless, I also wanna try their F class, but rather to get the lounge experience. I remember that...
I guess it won't be that bad. Look at Kuwait Airways or Saudia....should be similar in think. The problem should rather be, that they will most probably use for the premium route to LHR. If that's true, you wont be able to use the cheap CAI fares an ex CMB they rarely offer good prices in F.
Nevertheless, I also wanna try their F class, but rather to get the lounge experience. I remember that Sam Chui was told they just get around 20 Pax per week in the F-Lounge, which looks rather like a comfortable dining room with a fully customizable menu. So let's see how the new F lounge will look like and I'll give it a try.
@lucky..and regarding KU. Try the F Suites...but all i can tell you is that ex Asia BKK und KUL its just a C-Level Service including food(even they sell the seats a F). If you try it, better use a premium route like LHR oder FRA, as they maybe differentiate their service more on those routes.