SalamAir plans flights to three Pakistan cities

The first flight to Sialkot will be on May 16, to Multan on May 22 and the date for the Karachi flight will be announced later

MUSCAT: Oman’s first budget airline—SalamAir—will start flights to three cities in Pakistan soon.

Speaking to the Times of Oman, François Bouteiller, chief executive officer (CEO) of SalamAir said: “The first flight to Sialkot will take off on May 16 and to Multan on May 22, 2017. Both of them will be operated three times per week and will offer connectivity capabilities to Jeddah, Medina, Salalah and Dubai.”

The flight to Sialkot (OV 253) will depart on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 11pm from the Muscat International airport and return the following mornings (Wednesdays, Sundays and Mondays) at 4am to reach Muscat at 6:20am (OV 254). The flight to Multan (OV 201) will depart on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 11:40pm from the Muscat International airport and return the following mornings (Wednesdays, Fridays & Mondays) at 4:15am to reach Muscat at 6:00am (OV 202).

The date of the first flight to Karachi, however, is yet to be decided. “It should be coming very soon,” he said.

Bouteiller also said that the market response from Pakistan has been very promising. “We’ve seen good sales activities since the very first day of flight availability on our website and travel agencies portals.” The airline started its commercial operations in January 2017 and is operating a growing fleet of A320 aircraft.

SalamAir has introduced three easy fare options: Light, Friendly and Flexi.

Light fares have been designed for customers who travel light and only require hand baggage.

Next is the Friendly fare, which includes 20 kilogrammes of checked luggage plus 7 kilogrammes of hand baggage.

For maximum passenger convenience and value, Flexi, has all the advantages of the Friendly fare, along with a priority checkin and the possibility to change flights at no extra cost.

Awarded its air service operator licence by the Public Authority for Civil Aviation (PACA) in early 2016, SalamAir’s journey started in January, 2017 when it flew from Salalah to Muscat.

The brainchild of ASAAS—a national investment and development company—SalamAir was formed to meet Oman’s rapidly growing demand for air traffic, which is expected to grow by 40 per cent by 2019.