Tag Archives: Oman Air

After launching its new office in New Delhi in partnership with RL Group, Oman Air is now planning to open offices in Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. Sunil V.A., Regional Vice President-ISC, Oman Air along with Chetan Gupta, Chairman, RL Group; Varun Mohindra, Head of Sales & Marketing, RL Group and Vijay Bhatia, President, Bird Group were present for the inauguration. “We have 162 flights operating from India, all connect well to the destinations. With our focus on Europe and Europe GCC, we are now planning to sell the east. We are not just dependent on the online network but also looking at the offline too.” said Sunil V.A. Oman is currently focusing to develop MICE segment in 2018 with a launch of its new airport on March 20, 2018.

With a fleet of about 50 aircraft globally, Oman Air is growing by 21-22 per cent Year-on-Year. “In India we have just increased our capacity by 6000 seats which includes for metropolis and Calicut in Kerala. And in Goa, the moment we see we are ready, the connectivity will be tweaked. We have a split schedule in Goa as some flights leave at night while others leave early morning,” says Ihab A Sorial, Global Senior Vice President, International Sales, Oman Air. Very soon, in about a month’s time, Oman Air will be opening up in Manchester too. Only last month they made their presence felt at Nairobi in Kenya. Sorial was in Goa to attend a conference which Oman Air conducts every quarter for India. This conference is to discuss the business strategy and how to maximise the revenue, sales and stress on the focus points. “India is very big for Oman Air and it is the third biggest point of sale in terms of revenue,” added Sorial. On a question why they not fly for USA and Australia, Mr Sorial felt that the strategy is to focus on what they have. “We do not want to stretch ourselves thinly on all the points. The Board and the senior management is of the view that to consolidate first on what we have. Then after that may be will look at other sectors. Our business is very competitive and margin of profit is very limited. We have to do careful expenditure,” said Sorial.

Oman’s national carrier will reportedly start a new daily direct flight between Salalah, a southern Omani city and Kozhikode in Kerala from next week, in addition to Oman Air’s flight service between Muscat and Kozhikode which is the latest destination in the airline’s fleet and network expansion programme. “Oman Air is committed to support the economic development of the Dhofar region, which is a key market for us. We are extremely happy to announce this new direct service between Salalah and Kozhikode,” Oman Air CEO Paul Gregorowitsch said. The daily service will be operated by a Boeing 737-800. Existing frequencies between Muscat and Kozhikode have also been increased from once daily to twice daily since February this year. Oman Air is growing its weekly capacity to India with frequencies increasing on five of the airline’s key Indian destinations. Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad increase from twice daily to three times daily. Kozhikode increases from once daily to three times daily and Lucknow increases from once daily to twice daily. The growth in capacity follows the revised flight agreement Oman and India in December 2016, when the number of weekly seats was increased to 27,405 seats for both countries, compared to 21,145 seats, an increase of 6,258 seats per week.

Oman Air is growing its capacity to India by increasing flight frequencies from 126 to 161 flights per week between Oman and its 11 Indian destinations to boost the tourism sector. The airline informed that from February onwards, Mumbai, Delhi, Calicut and Hyderabad will be operated with 21 weekly flights each and Lucknow with 14 weekly flights. “The demand for all 11 of our Indian destinations has always been high and the increased frequencies offer yet more choice and convenience to our guests. Oman Air first launched flights to India in the 1990s and the demand for seats has grown exponentially not only increasing tourism traffic and revenue but also promoting vital trade agreements between the two countries,” said Paul Gregorowitsch, Chief Executive Officer, Oman Air. The extended traffic entitlements will give a further boost to the tourism sector, prompting many discerning tourists to visit Oman as well as India. With this development, Oman Air is flying its wide bodied aircraft to selected destinations in India. Source: The Indian Express

Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, is celebrating the country’s 46th National Day with the inauguration of its Kochi office at a new location. The new office is located in MG Road, which is the most coveted location in the city. It was the first international carrier to operate from the Kochi International Airport. The office inauguration was marked by the ribbon cutting ceremony by Kochi Mayor Soumini Jain, in the esteemed presence of Ihab Sorial, Senior Vice President – International Sales, Sunil VA, Regional Vice President – Indian Subcontinent, Bhanu Kaila, Country Manager – India, Jayakrishna Bhaskaran – District Sales Manager, Kochi and Vijay Bhatia, President, Bird Group of Companies. In 2001, Oman Air started its operations in Kochi with 3 flights in a week which was later increased to 5 flights a week. In 2005, Oman Air announced daily operations from Kochi to Muscat. To meet the ever increasing travel needs of our customers, Oman Air now operates twice daily from Kochi since December 2015.

In a bid to expand its India portfolio, Paul Gregorowitsch, CEO, Oman Air, said that Oman Air wants to increase its weekly flights from the current 126 from Muscat to 175 weekly flights by 2018. He said, “We currently fly double daily flights to six out of the 11 destinations in India with 21,147 seats. Our current bilateral agreement allows us only so much. If we are allowed more, we will opt to go triple daily to these six same cities namely Mumbai, Delhi, Kochi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad as our load factors are already close to 90 per cent thanks to the travel trade.” Gregorowitsch was visiting Mumbai to talk about Oman’s national carrier’s growth, strategy and expansion plans. The airline also hosted its agent partners for a networking and Iftar party. The airline celebrates 23 years of its India operations.