Oman aviation: Airfares set to take off as oil prices rise

Muscat: Passengers should brace themselves for a hike in airfares as the price of oil rises, a senior official of Oman Air revealed.
Abdulrahman Al Busaidy, Deputy CEO and Executive Vice President-Commercial, of Oman Air made the comments after hosting a reception in Nairobi to mark the airline’s inaugural flight to Kenya, attended by VVIPS and senior representatives from aviation authorities of both countries.
“When the price of oil dropped to 25 dollars, almost all the carriers dropped their fares. But later they realised that they are losing money.
“Even the airlines of neighbouring countries lost huge money. But now the prices of oil have gone up to $55.”
He cited the example of fares to India which had dropped to OMR80 when oil prices fell. “But now it is touching OMR130,” he said, adding “this is happening not only to Oman but in almost other countries like the Philippines, Thailand and the United Kingdom.” He also said that Oman Air is looking to launch flights to Sudan, Mombasa in Kenya, Baghdad in Iraq, Poland and Romania.
“When we looked at Khartoum in Sudan earlier, it was not encouraging, but we are still studying that market,” he said, adding Mombasa in Kenya is another destination Oman Air wants to add in the next couple of years.
And the airline is also studying whether to launch a direct flight to Baghdad in Iraq. “Iraq needs to be rebuilt so we are interested in flying,” he said.
In Eastern Europe, Oman Air is keen to fly to Romania and Poland if they ease their visa procedures. “We have to keep in mind the Omanis travel for just two months in a year so before launching any destination we have look how far the route is profitable,” he said.
Talking about the newly launched services to Nairobi, he said that there was big demand. “And that we are seeing also. Almost all the flights to Nairobi are going full ever since we launched direct flights to Nairobi,” he added.
He also touched upon the recent electronics ban introduced by the US which indirectly affects passengers in Oman wanting to travel on to America.
“In terms of aviation, some of the recent policies seems to be strange like the ban of travel of certain nationalities. Initially, people issued visas by US embassy were not allowed to travel. But luckily, that has changed.
“Now comes ban on laptops from some countries. It is highly inconvenience to passengers. Imagine travelling for 15 hours and how much movies you can watch? But let’s see, may be they will rethink their policies.
“If you travel from Mumbai to New York, OK no problem... you can carry laptops and other electronic devices but if you are travelling from Dubai and other Gulf countries, you can’t carry.
“Many people have started thinking, it is more of economic action rather than real security action. But anyway, it is their policies and I and other countries have to respect to it.”