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Oman Air cutting back on routes, aircraft and Chelsea FC – oneworld membership off?

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It was announced in 2022 that Oman Air was seeking membership of the oneworld airline alliance. This was a welcome move, given that British Airways was no longer flying to Muscat and that I’d been impressed by the three flights I’d done with them.

The airline has been in financial difficulties for some time and is now taking drastic action. The A330 fleet of long haul aircraft was permanently retired over the weekend.

Oman Air cutting back on routes and aircraft

This means that Oman Air has lost just over 50% of its 19-strong long-haul fleet, with only nine Boeing 787 aircraft left (I think a tenth is on order). There are also 25 short haul Boeing 737 planes.

With fewer long haul aircraft, it is cutting all flights to Chittagong, Colombo, Islamabad and Lahore. Male, Trabzon and Zurich will become seasonal services. Some long haul routes will also switch from flat bed A330 aircraft to a Boeing 737, which has a US-style single aisle Business Class seat which does not become a bed.

The Oman Air partnership with Chelsea FC has also been abruptly terminated. The deal – which has been running for less than a year – was reportedly worth $2.5m per season and saw the airline logo appear on team shirts.

With all this going on, and the airline moving more towards being a point to point operator rather than a hub carrier, it remains to be seen whether it will continue with its application to join oneworld. It will no longer see much benefit from connecting alliance traffic and the move is likely to increase central costs.

That said, it is only fair to point out that Oman Air retains a larger fleet, both long haul and short haul, than fellow Middle Eastern oneworld member Royal Jordanian.

How Oman intends to fill its stunning but huge $1.8 billion new terminal at Muscat International Airport, which opened in 2018, is another issue.

Comments (31)

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  • Jenny says:

    Are the Emirates- General admission seats any good?

    • Ken says:

      Good.

      However neither semi final will sell out particularly the City v Chelsea game where plenty of tickets will be available for £100 or less. You’d pick up a club Wembley silver for about £300.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        Cov vs Man Utd will sell out that’s for sure

        • Ken says:

          There will be at least 5000 empty seats that’s for sure. There is for every semi, even when United appear.
          Whether you can get your hands on them is sometimes a different matter. If you know someone who has a club wembley seat you would easily get a ticket.

          • Rob says:

            Brighton v Man U last year was 81,000 capacity, so a little short of the technical cap but you don’t know how many seats were unsold to create segregation etc. The Man City semi-final was not a sell out although that doesn’t mean you could buy a walk-up ticket (can you?).

          • TGLoyalty says:

            Club Wembley aren’t going for less than £100 .. 34k went to either side. Man Utd have technically sold all their allocation, secondary market aren’t selling for less than £100 either and non season ticket holders but previous purchasers with more than 50 points can buy Coventry tickets from April 4th. There won’t be 5k tickets left there.

          • Alex B says:

            I was quoted £720 for base level Club Wembley, so this comparatively is a bargain.

        • Fazzy Bear says:

          These tickets have been on the Emirates website for over a week, Coventry got a allocation of 24 and have only sold 3 so far.

          Feel Emirates have priced themselves out of the market if the end goal is to sell out. They may still shift nearer the time but circa £300 worth of points seems excessive.

          • Rob says:

            By making people log in to see them, I think most assume they are for elite members only. Why put the log in requirement there? Everything else that requires a log in is for Gold and above only.

            Hilton is struggling with its ‘evening with Joe Elliott of Def Leppard’ event, priced at a very toppy 100,000 points for what is a Q&A and not a music event. Only 10 out of 25 spots sold. People are getting too aggressive, I agree.

          • Fazzy Bear says:

            In response to Rob – Skywards has VIP tickets for England test matches appear available when logged out and when you log in they tell you that you are ineligible to buy them (as non gold). So exact opposite of what they are doing with the FA Cup tickets.

          • TGLoyalty says:

            I agree with you on the points prices are Excessive but will say the sale of tickets to supporters literally just started

            Expect Coventry fans might be looking for them after April 11th

  • Xmenlongshot says:

    I last week booked Oman Air via a Lufthansa code share for October half term FYI

    The single aisle non lie-flat plane nearly caught me out and made me transit via Frankfurt (lie-flat) vs Munich

  • Thywillbedone says:

    Shame that Oman are shrinking …had a very memorable flight with them in J a few years back, really superb product all round. But prices have been lofty while their profile remained very low; strangely I could never see them listed as an option on Google Flights (e.g. to BKK) which can’t have helped.

    • tony says:

      Their lack of visibility is strange indeed. I picked up a very good fare with them BKK-MCT-FRA-BHX in 2022 – then it disappeared. Needed the same for later this year and spotted the same option but only via their own website. Google flights was however showing BKK-MCT-FRA-DUB.

      Agree that the flights – and the lounge plus general transit experience in Muscat – were memorable for all the right reasons.

  • Luna says:

    What is the source of the information re the A330 fleet? Has it been substantiated.
    I have a flight to Colombo with Qatar Airways in June. The DOH-CMB is operated by Oman Air A330-200.

    • kiran_mk2 says:

      If you look up Oman Air on Wikipedia, there are references for this news

      • Rob says:

        This is a wet lease which will continue. Qatar is short of aircraft hence this.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          What are the chances all of the A330 end up as wet leases for Qatar / BA etx

          • Rob says:

            Qatar would be keen until its new orders turn up, I’m sure.

    • Mohammed says:

      Oman Air has leased some A330 aircrafts to Qatar Airways.

  • Erico1875 says:

    Oman Air stiffed me during COVID. Cancelled my flight, no refund. I did a charge back via Amex. They disputed it and said to Amex they had given me a credit, so Amex reversed the charge back. I never received any credit.
    Kind of Karma to see them struggling now 😁

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Did one you ask Amex for proof of the credit from Oman air as you’d never seen any?

      • apbj says:

        Amex will always take the side of the merchant, regardless of evidence, as I discovered when BA stiffed me during Covid. I eventually got my money back from BA but Amex could not have been less helpful. Had a similar issue with Hertz, in which Amex told me I had to keep pursuing the issue with Hertz even though it was in black and white from Hertz themselves that they owed me money; again, I got it back in the end thanks to my own efforts. Why people keep suggesting disputed charges as a means of magically solving things I’ll never understand. FSO is useless, too, although there is pleasure in knowning that every complaint costs the provider a fee even if not upheld.

        • Will says:

          If you pay by credit card then legally the card company is the entity that needs to ensure you get the product or service you paid for so you can take them to small claims in these cases where they refuse a chargeback without evidence.

    • Tom says:

      They are not a good airline to deal with in the case of IRROPS. I had a brief flirtation would them pre-COVID but they are completely unreliable and their back office is even worse than Qatar. Bloggers saying how great they are is normally based on a single flight in their (admittedly very good) business class, but trying flying 10 flights on Oman Air – I guarantee at least one will be cancelled, you’ll be downgraded, etc.

  • m says:

    These Emirates redemptions are out of control now.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      You might be right if they don’t sell … if they do then Emirates will say it’s at the market price

  • lee says:

    Single seats so if you buy 2 does that mean you won’t be seated together ?

    • Fazzy Bear says:

      They will seat you together provided it’s one transaction

      • TGLoyalty says:

        Any idea where in each side of the stadium the seats are?

        • Fazzy Bear says:

          No sorry – I’m going by past Arsenal redemptions

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