Oman Air restarts flights to three more destinations

Oman's national carrier, Oman Air, has resumed flights to three more cities in Kuwait, Bahrain and Sri Lanka effective today, as part of plans to ramp its commercial passenger services back up to normal following the more than six-month hiatus because of Covid-19.

The airline has begun operating two flights per week to Kuwait City, Manama and the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, bringing the total number of destinations it serves to 24. Oman Air is also planning to boost its domestic operations with three daily round-trip flights to Salalah, in addition to six weekly flights each to Khasab in the northern Musandam exclave and Duqm on the east coast.

The Sultanate resumed international flights in and out of the country on 1 October for the first time since imposing a ban on all flights on 29 March.

This resumption of commercial flights from Oman should spur an increase in jet fuel demand in the country, which fell 62pc year-on-year to just 5,100 b/d in the first nine months of 2020 versus 13,440 b/d in the corresponding period last year, according to Oman's National Center of Statistics and Information (NCSI).

But Mideast Gulf jet and air travel demand is unlikely to recover to pre-Covid 19 levels for some time yet, as many regions have reintroduced some degree of travel restrictions in response to rising case numbers in many parts of the world.

The International Air Transport Association (Iata) just last week downgraded its 2020 traffic forecast for airlines in the Middle East, citing a "weaker-than-expected recovery." It now forecasts passenger numbers in the region to decline by 70pc from 2019 levels, compared with its earlier forecast of a 55pc drop. It also expects demand in the region to average just 45pc of 2019 levels in 2021, and no full return to pre-pandemic levels until at least 2023.

By Sarah Raffoul