IAN GOOLD / BEIRUT
Gulf carrier to return leased aircraft as it considers move to boost capacity
Oman Air is looking to add widebodies to its fledgling fleet, as it continues to rationalise operations.
The Gulf carrier's chief executive Abdul Rahman Al Busaidy says the company wants to acquire up to three new widebody twinjets - either the Airbus A330 or the Boeing 767-300ER. The additional capacity is required before year-end to serve routes to Bangkok, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and London.
Al Busaidy says the airline expects to return its single Boeing 737-400 to lessor International Lease Finance (ILFC) this month, following the return of its last Airbus A310-300 to ILFC, and its three remaining Fokker F27s being put into storage.
By August, following deliveries currently under way, the airline will have three 124-seat Boeing 737-700s and two 166-passenger-800s, with a further 737-800 scheduled to arrive next year. The airline also operates four ATR 42-500s, of which three are dedicated to a Petroleum Development Oman service contract.
Al Busaidy says that new routes being introduced this summer include Beirut, Lebanon; Cairo, Egypt; Karachi, Pakistan; and Colombo, Sri Lanka, as well as Mombasa, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, Tanzania.
Bahrain is also under consideration, as the only Gulf Co-operation Council state not in Oman Air's network, and a principal hub for cash-strapped Gulf Air, the international carrier in which the Oman government has a 25% share, along with the governments of Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, and Qatar. At the beginning of this month, Oman and Qatar missed a deadline by which the partner governments had been due to commit to a new cash injection for Gulf Air.
Source: Flight International
