Oman Air begins daily direct service to Athens

Laurent Recoura cutting a cake to mark Oman Air's new daily direct service to Athens. - Supplied photo

Oman air, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, has launched its daily direct service to Athens, a day after it flagged off daily flights to Alexandria in Egypt.
The Boeing 737-800 debut flight WY193 was greeted with a water cannon salute at Athens International Airport, marking the Gulf carrier's 54th worldwide destination and 10th in Europe.
Oman Air's network expansion with the addition of two new destinations in two days, regardless the crippling effect of the grounding of five Boeing 737 Max aircraft, is part of an aggressive medium-term growth roadmap that will see the fast-growing carrier operate up to 70 aircraft compared to the current 55 planes connecting 60 destinations by 2022, Oman Air officials said.
CEO Abdulaziz Al Raisi said there has been a strong interest for the Greek destination, both from the travel trade community and leisure travellers ever since the route launch was announced last year.
"We expect this daily service connecting Muscat with Athens to further stimulate economic, trade and business relations between our two countries. Apart from strengthening and opening up new business opportunities between Greece and Oman, the flights will also act as a catalyst in driving the expansion of Greek tourists to Oman,' he added.
"We are extremely proud and happy to add Athens to our network, as the second new route launched in 2019. Oman has strong bilateral relations with Greece and the introduction of this new flight will certainly help strengthen relations even further. Trade between Oman and Greece is growing and we are happy to be able to facilitate this further with the start of this service. Oman is turning into a very important regional logistics hub with world-class infrastructure and we are sure Greek investors and companies recognise the opportunities here."
Laurent Recoura, senior vice-president for international sales at Oman Air, said the new service would meet the demand for both business and leisure traffic, allowing the airline to showcase Oman's attractions to Greek visitors.
As part of the new Greek destination promotion, Oman Air had announced a two-week promotional fare offer of OR129 from May 2. for travel between June 1 and December 16.
With a flight time of approximately six hours, flight WY194 departs Athens daily at 00:20 and arrives at the new passenger terminal at Muscat International Airport at 06:35 the same day.
"The direct flight is the only non-stop operation between Greece and Oman benefitting both business and leisure travellers, as well as the Greek community in Oman. The new service also offers seamless connections via Oman Air's hub, Muscat International Airport, to the carrier's destinations across the globe," said Recoura.
Paul Starrs, chief commercial officer at Oman Air, said the new service would provide more choice and greater convenience for travellers. "We are confident the addition of Athens onto our expanding global network will be appreciated by the business communities, especially small and medium enterprises, as well as holiday-makers looking for new travel experiences."
- issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com