Oman Air plans to start Muscat - Goa flight

An Oman Air aircraft.

Muscat: The Sultanate's national carrier Oman Air is planning to start a new service between Muscat and Goa, a western Indian state, by next summer, a top-level official of the airline told journalists here on Sunday.

Oman Air also has plans to double its services to two fights a day (morning and evening) between Muscat and several Indian destinations, instead of a daily flight now.

The national carrier plans to operate three weekly flights to Goa, which will go up to five eventually, using a 154-seater Boeing 737 aircraft.

"We are aspiring for more traffic rights to India to enable us to fly to every destination in India twice a day – morning and night. We now fly twice a day in Muscat-Mumbai, Muscat-Chennai and Muscat New Delhi sectors. We want to serve Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram twice a day," said Abdulrahman Al Busaidy, chief operating officer of Oman Air.

He said Oman secured 5,000 additional seats to India three years ago and the airline's plan to start new service to Goa is from within the existing flying rights.

Al Busaidy also noted that talks between Oman and Sri Lanka are scheduled for November in Colombo to double its flights from one daily flight in Muscat-Colombo sector to twice a day. "We are also trying to double its flights to Kathmandu."