Oman Air is national airline of the Sultanate of Oman, founded in 1993. This airline company is based at Muscat International Airport in Seeb, Muscat. It operates domestic and international passenger services. It also operates charter flights and regional air taxi flights.

History

This airline company traces its roots back to 1970 when the OIS was established, and this company became a civil aircraft ground handling service at Neit Al Falaj Airport. Oman International services moved operations to the new terminal at the Seeb International airport in 1972. It took over Gulf air’s light aircraft division in 1977. The civil aviation industry of Oman started expanding rapidly, leading OIS to the building or several facilities such as workshops, in-flight catering and hangars.

Oman Aviation services became a joint-stock company in 1981, and it also purchased 13 aircraft from Gulf Air, allowing this company to replace its turboprops Fokker 27-200 with the -500 series. The same year, Oman Aviation services commenced jet services along with Gulf Air to Salalah. The company also purchased new equipment, including the Cessna citation from 1983 to 1993, and the new facilities also helped it improve its services.

Foundation

The start of the airline company was in March when a wet-leased Boeing 737-300 from AWAS flew from Muscat to Salalah. In July 1993, the airline’s first International flight was operated to Dubai. Flights to other destinations also started with Trivandrum in November, Kuwait, Karachi in January 1994, Colombo in October.

Two Airbus A320s were wet-leased from the region air of Singapore in 1995.

From 1995 to 1997, the services were also commenced to Dhaka, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Chennai and Mumbai. Oman Air was admitted to the International Aviation industry trade group IATA in October 1998. By the end of 1998, Jeddah, Al Ain, Peshawar and Gwadar were included in the ever-expanding routes network.

Recapitalization

The Omani government recapitalized the airline, and the government increased its shareholding from 33% to 80% in March 2007. It was announced that Oman Air would re-evaluate all the strategic plans by expanding its network. In April 2007, the airline announced that it had placed an order with Airbus for 5 Airbus A330 aircraft for delivery in 2009. In the 2009 Dubai Air Show, Oman Air finalized the order involving 3 A330-300s and 2 A330-200s. The deliveries also started during the third quarter of 2009. The airline company also announced intentions to lease another 2 A330-200s from Jet Airways in February 2009. During the Dubai Air Show, the airline company finalized the order for five Embraer 175 aircraft with another five options.

Development since 2010

By November 2010, the Omani Government held about 99.8 per cent stake in the airline company. Maitha Al Mahrouqi was appointed as the country manager in 2010. In 2011, this airline won the Gold Award for the airline of the year.

During September 2013, the CEO was quoted saying that the airline was studying to move to a 50 aircraft strong fleet by 2017. Oman Air announced that it would phase out its smaller aircraft to focus on an all Airbus and Boeing fleet in April 2015. In April 2017, the airline company announced their plans to replace the A330s with Airbus A350s or the Boeing 787s. In July 2017, the airline company also received an award for ‘Best Airline Staff service in the Middle East’. Later that year in September, the Seven Start Luxury Lifestyle and Hospitality awards named it the ‘Best Airline in Europe and the Middle East and Africa’.

The International Air Transport Association granted the level 4 New distribution capability certification to the airline company in June 2019. The carrier also became one of the first airlines to function on the latest standards. Oman air announced the expansion of its codeshare cooperation with Kenya Airways in August 2017.