OneWorld Alliance Partners
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Earlier this year, Oman Air announced plans to join the oneworld alliance, alongside British Airways. This will allow Oman Air to earn and spend Avios as well as British Airways points points.
Qatar Airways, which already works heavily with Oman Air, acts as a sponsor of the app and handles the integration.
The addition of Oman Air will give oneworld an even stronger position in the Middle East, flying alongside Qatar Airways and Royal Jordanian.
Oman Air lately flies to 50 destinations in 27 countries (data from Wikipedia) a fleet of Boeing 737, Boeing 787 and Airbus A330 aircraft.
I reviewed Oman Air’s first class suite in this article and reviewed its executive elegance seat in this article. We review Oman Air’s business class in Muscat here. At Heathrow, use the Gulf Air lounge in Terminal 4, most likely transferring to Qatar Airways lounges in 2024.
I sat down with Jamal Saif Al Akzi, Regional Commercial Vice President, at the World Travel Market last week to learn more.
In the discussion below, paragraphs were added in parentheses through me to provide greater understanding and not attribute them to Jamal.
Basically, you want to take a computer formula designed to work on its own and integrate it to mine large amounts of user and network data for partners.
The launch date is still planned for 2024, in the first quarter.
(The only explanation for why Virgin Atlantic can temporarily subscribe to SkyTeam, the integration is scheduled for January, is because it’s been part of Delta’s IT infrastructure for some time. )
It is true that Oman Air will upload 3 new destinations to the oneworld address map: Duqm and Khasab in Oman and Chittagong in Bangladesh. There are also 3 airports where Oman Air has its own lounges: Muscat, Salalah and Bangkok.
That said, Jamal sees integration as complementary. Oman Air has scaled back its flight plans to North America so there are no conflicts with Qatar Airways here, and the two airlines have an existing partnership.
Where it is most powerful is the direction to India (11 destinations), Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, in directions that necessarily serve Royal Jordanian and Qatar Airways.
The airline believes that its visitor service, as well as the use of local cultural and design elements on its aircraft and on the ground, provide it with an exclusive proposition.
What is transparent is that British Airways has withdrawn routes served through oneworld partners: it no longer flies to Helsinki (Finnair’s headquarters) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia Airlines headquarters), for example.
The oneworld club was expected to develop tourism in Oman, which has the beach benefits of other Middle Eastern countries and also has a number of exclusive mountain resorts.
Jumeirah recently opened Jumeirah Muscat Bay. Se is working on St. Marriott’s Regis Al Mouj Resort, scheduled for 2024. Existing luxury resorts include The Chedi, the elegant Shangri La and, of course, the Al Bustan Palace.
A Mandarin Oriental hotel is also under construction.
(My Al Bustan Palace is here. )
No. Jamal company about it.
While the service was retired in October 2020, 4 years after its launch, the resolution was made before the pandemic hit.
Unlike flights from London Heathrow, there wasn’t much point-to-point traffic from Manchester. Passengers basically used Oman Air to go to Asia and India/Parkistan/Bangladesh, and it’s a very competitive price.
The new post-pandemic strategy is to increase point-to-point traffic, which will also help liven up Oman’s tourism industry.
(Etihad, of course, is pursuing a similar strategy, leaving Emirates and Qatar Airways to handle mostly passengers on the move. )
Oman Air returns to service between London Heathrow and Muscat.
Of course, I flew twice a day before the pandemic. The slot is recently leased, with airport coordination documents appearing to be used through Qatar Airways.
(Given that Oman Air set the record value for a daily landing and take-off space at Heathrow; it paid Kenya Airways $75 million in 2016 when it launched a momentary daily flight; I’m sure the airline is keen to get that time the daily service returns to the air as soon as possible. )
Oman Air is in the process of replacing its A330 fleet with Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
While most of the planes had arrived before the pandemic, Oman Air was able to postpone some deliveries. The latest pair, originally scheduled for 2023/4, has been delayed until oneworld integration is complete.
Oman Air recently carries between 60 and 70% of the passengers it carried in 2019, before the pandemic.
Charging points on individual flights are high, this is due to reduced frequencies on routes such as London.
Thanks to Jamal for his time. I have a lot of respect for Oman Air and really for Oman itself – I enjoyed my review in 2019, so much so that I organised a family circle holiday there for 2020, only to see it sabotaged due to covid.
While British Airways shows no signs of return flights to Abu Dhabi or even Muscat, Oman Air’s integration into oneworld will be an opportunity for HfP readers who need to explore the Middle East beyond Dubai.
What does Oman like about other people who like to see puts instead of staying in 5-star hotels?
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