The Hindu Business Line : Oman Air to operate more flights to India

It will operate three flights to Hyderabad a week and four flights to Delhi, said Mr Abdulrahman Al Busaidy, CEO of Oman Air. The airline will operate daily flights to Kochi instead of five a week as of now, and 12 flights to Mumbai in place of the existing 10 flights, Mr Busaidy told newspersons here on Friday.

He said India is an important destination for Oman Air and also one of its most profitable sectors. With India's growing prominence in the world in terms of economic growth and immense potential in areas such as health, education, tourism and information technology, there is scope for higher passenger traffic between the country and the Gulf region.

He noted that the airline industry worldwide had been going through a lean patch over the last three years and had suffered a combined loss of $35 billion. The going had been particularly tough in the last one year in the wake of surging oil prices. Despite this, Oman Air had been able to record a profit in 2004.

On the impact of low-cost airlines like Air India Express on regular airlines like Oman Air, he said that experience had shown that there was very little of it. For instance, a large chunk of passengers like business executives, government officials and even patients still preferred to travel in regular airlines.

Besides, the price differential was not very significant in the last few days of ticket booking and the general trend was that the last eight to 10 days witnessed heavy booking of seats. Regular airlines often copy some of the practices of budget airlines such as Internet booking and ticketing. This results in cost savings to the tune of 10 per cent, he said.

Mr Busaidy said Oman Air is the only airline in the Gulf region with a public shareholding and thus it operates on a commercial basis. He hoped that the airline, with more destinations in its kitty, would be able to book higher profits in the current year.

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