Oman Air is at present present process a restructuring, and the provider’s fleet is about to get a lot smaller…
Oman Air cuts community, parks large our bodies
Oman Air seems to be retiring all of its Airbus A330s as of late March 2024. To my information, the airline hasn’t formally introduced this, however the planes are not scheduled on any flights as of then (due to @KMCT111 for flagging this).
For context on Oman Air’s fleet, the airline at present has 44 passenger plane, together with 9 Boeing 787s, 10 Airbus A330s, and 25 Boeing 737s. So by parking all of its A330s, the airline is roughly chopping its large physique fleet in half.
From an aviation geek perspective, the retirement of those A330s is sort of a tragic improvement. This spells the top of Oman Air’s retro A330 first-class. Gahhh, I used to be making an attempt to fly it earlier than it was too late, however there was an plane swap. Now I assume it’s too late!
It additionally represents the top of Oman Air’s ridiculously cool retro A330 enterprise class, which was such a snug throwback.
With this fleet discount, Oman Air might be chopping frequencies in lots of markets. On prime of that, the airline might be absolutely chopping service to Chittagong, Colombo, Islamabad, and Lahore, and can make flights to Male, Trabzon, and Zurich, seasonal.
From a passenger expertise standpoint, the retirement of the A330s may be very dangerous information. Many routes beforehand operated by the A330 will as an alternative be operated by the 737, which has a totally totally different passenger expertise. Slightly than having flat beds in enterprise class, it simply has seats that recline a bit.
For instance, I see the 737 scheduled on some dates from Muscat to each Munich and Kuala Lumpur. So when you might beforehand fly from Munich to Kuala Lumpur in Oman Air’s nice large physique absolutely flat enterprise class, you can now doubtlessly be on a slim physique jet for your complete journey. This makes Oman Air extremely uncompetitive for connecting passengers.
Wait, Oman Air was truly making an attempt to earn money?
Completely different authorities owned airways have totally different motives. Typically they’re indirectly revenue pushed, however fairly are about offering connectivity to a rustic, as half of a bigger financial aim. My assumption about Oman Air was all the time that the airline wasn’t truly meant to function effectively or to earn money.
However after performing some looking out on-line, apparently that’s not the case. In 2023, the airline reportedly tapped administration consulting agency Oliver Wyman to assist determine why the provider’s enterprise mannequin wasn’t working. Wait, critically? Oman Air paid cash to determine this out? Gosh, I actually am within the unsuitable line if work, apparently.
On probably the most fundamental stage, bless Oman Air for having such an amazing passenger expertise, however the provider’s planes are so inefficiently configured. For instance, Oman Air’s 787-9s have 288 seats, together with 30 enterprise class seats and 258 financial system seats. Different airways have extra seats than that, all whereas having bigger enterprise class cabins and/or a premium financial system cabin. That’s no method to maximize income.
Whereas Oman Air has an amazing delicate product, the difficulty is that the airline can’t command a income premium for its product, given how aggressive the area is. For that matter, Oman Air fairly constantly has probably the most enticing pricing within the area.
The airline merely hasn’t been environment friendly, and that has been a significant problem. As a lot as I hate to say it from a passenger expertise standpoint, the airline must be configuring its plane extra effectively, and will do a greater job of controlling prices.
I’m unsure parking A330s is a good answer, both. With Oman Air shrinking even additional, the airline could have a tougher time filling its current plane, given the decreased connectivity alternatives. The success of Gulf carriers is basically primarily based on having a sturdy community, given how small the demand ranges are in lots of the native markets. And I do suppose the 737s being scheduled on longer flights will trigger many premium passengers to e-book away from Oman Air.
Backside line
Oman Air might be shrinking considerably within the coming weeks, because the airline might be retiring its A330s, which make up roughly half of the provider’s large physique fleet. Not solely will the airline finish service to some locations and cut back frequencies, however we’ll additionally see 737s changing large our bodies on some longer routes, which makes the Oman Air passenger expertise extremely uncompetitive.
I can’t assist however surprise if Oman Air nonetheless plans to hitch oneworld, given the extent to which it’s in price chopping mode.
What do you make of those Oman Air updates?
