Oman Air and Riyadh Air expand route networks

Oman Air and Saudi Arabia’s newest airline Riyadh Air are adding new routes as part of their global expansion strategies.

State-backed Oman Air will launch a non-stop Muscat to Singapore service from Thursday, Oman Air CEO Con Korfiatis told Reuters.

The airline will fly the Boeing 737 Max narrow-body jet to Singapore for a non-stop eight-hour flight four days a week, the report said.

The sultanate’s flag carrier will also launch a new daily flight between Muscat and Abu Dhabi from this month, bringing its total GCC destinations to 10.

Korfiatis said Oman has moved from being a transit point to a tourist destination, creating a different market opportunity.

The airline is targeting load factors — the percentage of seats filled — in the mid-to-high 70s during the first operational year on the route.

Oman Air intends to resume services to North Asia within the next 12 months, the CEO said, without naming the destination.

In January the state-backed carrier said the number of passengers on its planes rose 8 percent year on year to 5.8 million.

Further reading:

• Gulf airlines’ expansion plans clipped by engineer shortage
• Riyadh Air takes off but now comes the hard part
• Gulf airlines need passenger confidence as well as restored flights

During the same month, AGBI reported that Oman was trying to attract private capital into its aviation sector as part of a 15-year strategy to improve connectivity and modernise infrastructure.

The National Aviation Strategy 2040 aims to draw more than OMR1 billion ($2.6 billion) in cumulative private-sector investment.

The 2040 targets include handling more than 40 million passengers, transporting about 1 million tonnes of air cargo and raising the sector’s contribution to GDP to more than 3.5 percent.

Meanwhile, Riyadh Air, backed by the $1 trillion Public Investment Fund (PIF), has added three more destinations, expanding its international network to nine cities.

The latest additions are Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Malaga, Spain and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Last month Riyadh Air received approval from the US Department of Transportation (DoT) to operate flights between Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The airline has also opened ticket sales for flights to Cairo, Dubai, Jeddah, Madrid and Manchester, in addition to London, its inaugural destination.

The carrier aims to fly to 100 destinations by 2030.

Saudi Arabia is targeting 150 million annual visitors by 2030 and has identified aviation as a pillar of its efforts to diversify the economy away from oil.