Oman poised to resume international flights

Oman Air (WY, Muscat), the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, resumes scheduled services on October 1, 2020 with flights to 18 cities in 12 countries. The airline in a statement announced services would include two flights per week connecting Muscat and Cairo Int’l; as well as twice-weekly flights to Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The airline would also resume twice weekly flights to London Heathrow, Frankfurt Int’l, Istanbul New, Dubai Int’l, and Doha Hamad Int’l, respectively. The carrier also announced the resumption of daily domestic flights to Salalah, the capital of southern Oman’s Dhofar province. On September 20, the airline resumed six weekly flights to the port town of Duqm Jaaluni, a fast-growing trade and investment hub on the Arabian Sea in Al Wusta Governorate. Meanwhile, Omani low-cost carrier SalamAir (OV, Muscat), in social media posts, said it would restart scheduled international services in October, starting with 12 routes. Between October 1 and October 24, planned operations included Alexandria Borg el Arab, Bahrain Int’l, Chittagong, Dhaka, Doha Hamad Int’l, Dubai Int’l, Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen, Karachi Int’l, Khartoum, Multan, Shiraz, Sialkot, and Tehran Imam Khomeini. It would also operate twice-daily domestic flights from Muscat to Salalah. Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi Int’l) earlier announced it would resume flights to Muscat from Abu Dhabi Int’l on September 16, pending government approval. However its latest flight schedule shows it will resume Muscat flights on October 2. Emirates (EK, Dubai Int’l) also resumes flights to Muscat on October 1, according to the company website. Oman closed its borders on March 29, 2020 because of the pandemic. The bulk of domestic flights were also suspended at that time, although Oman Air continued to operate services to Khasab in the Musandam Governorate. According to local media reports, anyone entering Oman needs to observe a 14-day quarantine at home or in a hotel. All foreign citizens are required to be heath-insured. In July tenders were floated to add PCR test solutions to Oman’s airports.