Insider information that claimed Omani aviation executives were considering splitting the country’s national carrier, Oman Air and creating a new domestic carrier have been dismissed by officials. Reports that a new airline called ‘Oman Air’ would be created emerged earlier this week after several sources who claimed to have inside knowledge of the plan leaked information to Reuters.
According to the sources, officials had been mulling a plan to separate Oman Air’s loss-making domestic route network from its international operations. Creating a new airline with a separate management team would give Oman Air the chance to focus on expanding its international presence and give it a fighting chance to better compete with strong competition in the Gulf region.
Oman Air currently flies to three domestic destinations from its Muscat hub using several aircraft types including Boeing 737’s which allegedly have too much capacity. A spin-off airline would instead only use regional jets far more suited to current demands.
If successful, sources suggested Oman Link would even have been used to operate flights to other international destinations in the region.
But it looks like those rumours were just that… rumours.
“Oman Aviation Group denies reports regarding the establishment of a new airline company. The group is working on developing a promotional and investment programme called ‘Oman Link’, which aims to promote and connect regional airports in the Sultanate,” the airline’s parent company said in a statement to the Times of Oman.
Oman Air is part of the Omani Aviation Group which is majority-owned by the government of Oman. The flag carrier does not publish financial information, although it’s widely believed to be loss-making.
