Oman Air is set to simplify its fleet over the coming months and is likely to base its widebody operations around one type.
The Middle East carrier operates a mixed widebody fleet of seven Airbus A330-200/300s and nine Boeing 787-8/9s, as well as 25 Boeing narrowbodies – a mix of 737 Max jets and -800/900s.
Speaking to FlightGlobal on the sidelines of a Oneworld press conference in Dubai at the IATA AGM on 3 June, Oman Air’s new chief executive Con Korfiatis said: ”The fleet continues to grow. We have to simplify our fleet in the coming months.
”Narrowbodies are relatively consistent and will sort itself out with natural expiration of leases pretty quickly,” he explains. ”On the widebody side, we have got some older A330s and we’ve got some younger 787s. It makes sense to simplify around one aircraft [type], so don’t be surprised to see that soon.”
Korfiatis, who has previously worked for JetStar Asia, Citilink, Qantas, Viva Macau and most recently led Saudi budget airline Flyadeal, was named chief executive in March. The appointment is crucial to Oman Air, which has embarked on a restructuring effort to turn around heavy losses, and Korfiatis will be tasked with steering the transformation programme.
”It really is a beautiful country and a beautiful asset at home from an inbound perspective and an airline that not only brings people to Oman, but also connects east to west because we do have a network to the east and to the sub-continent and to Europe,” he says.
”So we see that business expanding. We have got a Vision 2040 programme in Oman and tourism is one of the pillars of that, and obviously we are key enabler of that.
”But it’s a legacy airline. It’s been around for 30 years, its never gone through a transformation really,” he adds. ”So all the customer-facing side is awesome, but in the background we have a lot of work to bring us onto a modern era, a lot of digitisation, processes reviews, take some of the [cost] excesses and inefficiencies out. That’s the mandate for the next couple of years at least.”
It comes as Oman Air prepares to join the Oneworld alliance later this year. ”It really expands our footprint,” says Korfiatis. “It helps a lot and we contribute a bit from our corner of the Middle East. It’s a good grouping, I’m very familiar from when I was with Qantas and the benefits that it brings.”
