Oman Air reinforces allegiance to UK trade
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Oman Air has pledged its allegiance to the UK trade as the airline continues to up capacity, develop new routes and improve its product and service offering out of London Heathrow and soon, Manchester.
“The trade us very important to us,” said the Omani flag carrier’s country manager for UK & Ireland, Simon Cook, speaking to Travel Daily at this week’s World Travel Market in London.
“And as we prepare to launch daily services to Muscat from Manchester on 1 April next year (2017), we will be pursuing more partnerships with the Northern trade in terms of marketing, fam trips, and more.”
He continued: “There is a strong business case for the daily service out of Manchester in terms of catchment area for VFR, corporate and leisure traffic.
“Manchester is the gateway to the north, including Scotland, and a hub for industries such as engineering, construction and architecture. It’s also home to a large Bangladeshi and Pakistani community and Oman Air offers strong connections to these destinations via Muscat.”
An A330 will initially be deployed on the Manchester route, with plans to roll out one of the airline’s new or soon-to-be delivered B787 Dreamliners to operate the service in the future.
Cook said he was currently recruiting staff and establishing an Oman Air office in Manchester to ensure Oman Air had a strong presence in the city.
The UK is a strong market for Oman Air, with the double daily out of Heathrow delivering an average load factor of 89% in October, revealed Cook.
The airline revealed this week that it will move its double-daily London-Muscat operations from Terminal 3 to Terminal 4 at Heathrow from 21 January (2017) – a move it said would “further enhance the guest experience on one of Oman Air’s flagship routes”.
Terminal 4 offers visitors a world-class shopping experience with retail shops, book stores, electrical outlets, souvenir shops and much more.
Oman Air premium passengers will continue to have use of the designated lounge.
As UK agents continue to be a key source of business for Oman Air, the airline is also planning to introduce trade rates in 2017.
This will encourage them to explore Oman as a tourism destination said Cook.
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