2009: The Year of Oman Air
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Oman Air has high aspirations. Having decided just 20 months ago to part from Gulf Air and become the de-facto national carrier for Oman, this once small, local carrier is now aiming to set new standards in air travel in the Gulf region and beyond.
In an exclusive interview with TDA, Oman Air’s CEO, Peter Hill, and Vice President - Commercial, Barry Brown, spoke of the carrier’s ambitions of becoming a leading, innovative new player on the world stage. In August this year, Gulf will take delivery of the first of its seven brand new Airbus A330 aircraft (a two-class A330-200), which it plans to use on its Muscat-London Heathrow route. Following that, two new A330-300s will be introduced, launching services to Paris and Frankfurt, as well as boosting capacity to Bangkok.
These however will be no ordinary A330s. “We believe that if Airbus wanted to find a flagship model for its best equipped A330, they would use the Oman Air model,” Hill told TDA. “Everything will be state-of-the-art. Passengers will be able to take advantage of not only fully flat beds and the highest grade in-flight entertainment systems with over 500 movies, but also watch live television and use their mobile phones in flight.”
Oman Air are not aiming to emulate their regional rivals, such as Gulf or Emirates, but provide an altogether different class of service, serving Oman as the destination, rather than the transit point.
Oman Air will debut their new A330-200 business class seats at ITB Berlin. For the full TDA interview with Peter Hill and Barry Brown, please see the Face-to-Face column on page four.
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