Oman Air open to invest in India

The airline espies much potential in India and is open to investing here – not just in Indian airlines but also in related activities like setting up an MRO facility. It will also introduce daily Muscat-Manchester flights in April 2017.

Following the announcement of 100 per cent FDI in Indian aviation by the Finance Minister recently, Oman Air has revealed that it is open to investing in India. Paul Gregorowitsch, CEO, Oman Air, said, “We do not exclude any financial participation in any Indian airline. If an opportunity arises, we will take it; it’s an open issue for us. Investment is not limited to an Indian airline. It could also be in related businesses such as setting up an MRO facility in India where our aircraft could be maintained.”

He added that this year, Oman Air will receive a budget of close to USD 100 million from the Government of Oman. Of this, the airline will spend USD 1.1 billion on infrastructure and promoting the destination. Gregorowitsch also revealed that it will introduce daily flights from India to Manchester with a stop-over in Muscat from April 1, 2017. Apart from this, it also wants to increase its weekly flights between Muscat and India from the present 126 weekly flights to 175 weekly flights by 2018. It currently operates to 11 destinations in India, including double dailies to Mumbai, Delhi, Kochi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai. Gregorowitsch adds, “Six of our 11 destinations al- ready have double daily frequencies. If we are allowed either on an extended bilateral agreement or via an open sky policy, our first intention would be to go triple daily to these six destinations we already serve and go double daily in the other cities. We are already running load factors of close to 90 per cent in our existing operations thanks to the travel trade and the Indian nationals living in the UK, USA and Europe who want to travel home.” The carrier has no plans to add new destinations in India to its route.

The remaining five destinations each enjoy 10 or 11 frequencies per week. In all, Oman Air operates 126 flights per week between Muscat and India, which means 21,147 seats totally. This, Gregorowitsch adds, it wants to grow to 29,000 by 2018. The CEO was visiting Mumbai to meet and thank Oman Air’s top 20 travel agents. The airline also celebrates 23 years of its India operations this year.

Bhanu Mohan Kaila, Country Manager (India), Oman Air, said that 50 per cent of their business is generated through the travel trade in India including the bigger consolidators in the market. “Corporates also form a huge chunk of our clients for Business and First Class seats. We are also exploring other channel of distribution,” he said.