(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat- Oman Air is banking on medium-haul routes and codesharing pacts as part of its future growth strategy. Speaking at a tourism conference held recently, Paul Gregorowitsch, CEO, Oman Air, said that the airline would not fly to Australia or the US for now but instead enter into alliances with airlines who are offering a good proposition. 'The moment we want to fly to the US or Australia, we would need a different type of aircraft - a Boeing 777 or A380. Adding a different type of aircraft to our fleet would mean having different training, pilots and technical maintenance,' he said.
Explaining the rationale behind not flying to the US, Gregorowitsch said that currently there was an oversupply in the GCC. 'When I came to Oman in 2014, a business class ticket from Muscat to New York cost US$5,000, today you can buy it for US$2,000. If we put a US$130mn aircraft for 14 hours to New York and turn it aroundin four hoursand fly back in another 14 hours, we lose a unit for more than 32 hours. The same unit could operate to India or the Far East, where we can attract more guests and make a better return on our investment.'
He said that the airline has signed a codeshare agreement with Lufthansa on Muscat-Frankfurt and Muscat-Munich routes. As part of this pact, Oman Air has been flying to Lufthansa's terminal at Frankfurt and Munich airports since Sunday, providing for a seamless transfer to North Atlantic destinations.
The agreement enables Oman Air to have access to 59 additional destinations in the US and Europe. A special codeshare agreement has also been signed with United Airlines for North Atlantic traffic.
Gregorowitsch also said that time for the second London flight from Muscat will be changed to early morning to maximise connections to the US. 'Now you can fly relaxed to Europe and have a connecting flight in the same terminal in Frankfurt or London and manage an easy connection to North Atlantic.' He added that the airline is exploring the same kind of options with Thai Airways to fly to Australia.
Gregorowitsch also made a plea to the authorities to fast track the e-visa system and make the second runway operational.
Gregorowitsch added that Oman Air has prudently fine-tuned its expansion plans given the current economic downturn across the GCC saying that it now plans to go for only about '60 aircraft by 2020 and 70 by 2023'.
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