OMAN AIR has witnessed massive growth since its launch in 1993 and, looking ahead, Philippe Georgiou, chief officer corporate affairs, is optimistic on the airline’s target of reaching profitability by 2014.
2010 saw an overall system load factor reaching the low 70 per cents, which was considerably better than the airline’s forecast. “When the recession hit the world markets, Oman Air had just embarked on its expansion plans, thus we were much less impacted. In 2011, we will add more frequencies to existing destinations in addition to introducing new destinations and further network restructuring for a better schedule product in local and regional traffic to other GCC countries,” said Georgiou.
The airline will be receiving two Embraer E175s in March and an A330-200 in May. The Embraer will be utilised for short-haul regional flights, while the Airbus will complete the fleet of the same category, for the longer routes.