Oman Air resumes flights

Shirajiv Sirimane

Oman Air, national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, will be resuming flights to Sri Lanka from August. This is almost after a lay off of two years.

An official from the Hayleys Group, which is the General Sales Agent for the airline in Sri Lanka said that both the economic and political climate in Sri Lanka is very positive, and this was the reason for the airline to resume operations.

"Oman Air sees great potential in Colombo as a destination for business, leisure and labour traffic", he said. The airline, launched in 1993, is the first airline in the Gulf region to introduce the new Boeing 737 NG aircraft series and currently, operates 11 of these new aircraft consisting of 2 B737-700 models, and 9 B737-800 models.

"We are looking at operating four weekly frequencies to Colombo," he said.

Two flights are likely to be "stop over" flights in Male.

Oman Air currently operates direct international flights to Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai, Jeddah, Kuwait and Riyadh from Muscat. The airline also flies to ten destinations in India's Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Delhi, Lucknow, Bangalore, Kozhikode and Jaipur. Oman Air also flies to Chittagong in Bangladesh and Karachi, London, Bangkok, Cairo, Beirut and Amman.

Former Sri Lankan Airlines chief Peter Hill is the new CEO of Oman Air.