Oman’s aviation sector is accelerating into a new phase of regional and global connectivity, with fresh direct routes on Oman Air linking Muscat to Taif in Saudi Arabia, Kigali in Rwanda and Singapore, alongside its established services to Dubai and other Gulf hubs. The moves are drawing in tourism and trade partners from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Rwanda and beyond, positioning the Sultanate as a key bridge between the Middle East, Africa and Asia at a time when Oman is intensifying efforts to diversify its economy through travel and hospitality.

The latest wave of route announcements by Oman Air reflects a calibrated strategy to turn Muscat into a high-efficiency connecting hub that channels visitors into Oman’s own emerging tourism hotspots. In late 2025, the airline confirmed its first new route for 2026, a three-times-weekly Muscat–Taif service that launched on 31 January 2026 and became the carrier’s fifth destination in Saudi Arabia. Executives framed the move as a natural extension of deepening economic and cultural ties between the two Gulf neighbours and a response to growing demand for travel in both directions.

At the same time, Oman’s authorities have approved and promoted a wider slate of new scheduled flights on Oman Air, including services from Muscat to Copenhagen with a Baghdad stop, Baghdad itself, and Taif, as well as a Salalah–Moscow route. Officials say the expansion is designed to strengthen Oman’s links with key regional and global destinations, support tourism growth and provide passengers with more varied itineraries that combine city breaks, nature escapes and religious travel.

For travellers, the combined route growth means more non-stop options into Oman and onward through Muscat to Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. For Oman, it means higher potential arrivals into destinations such as Muscat, Salalah, Jabal Akhdar and coastal resort zones identified under the country’s long-term tourism development plans.

Saudi Arabia Partnership Deepens With Muscat–Taif Flights

The Muscat–Taif link is a focal point of the new regional network. Operating three days a week with Boeing 737 aircraft, the service connects Muscat International Airport to Taif, a highland city in western Saudi Arabia known for its temperate climate, rose plantations and proximity to the holy city of Mecca. Saudi officials and Oman Air executives alike have highlighted the route’s role in expanding air access for religious tourists, leisure travellers and business visitors.

Taif is now Oman Air’s fifth destination in Saudi Arabia, joining Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam and Madinah. Saudi tourism authorities, who are in the midst of an aggressive nationwide effort to attract visitors as part of Vision 2030, have welcomed the flights as a way to feed more travellers into the Kingdom’s growing network of heritage, cultural and entertainment attractions. The Cluster2 Company, which operates Taif International Airport, has positioned the route as part of a broader push to enhance international connectivity across its airports with the help of regional carriers.

From the Omani perspective, the Taif service helps distribute visitor flows more evenly across the year, tapping into demand for cooler summer temperatures in the Saudi highlands while encouraging Saudi residents to explore Oman’s coastlines and mountains. Oman Air executives say the new Saudi capacity is also intended to give passengers more flexibility, allowing them to fly into one Saudi city and out of another through Muscat, a combination that appeals to both business travellers and families undertaking religious travel who want multi-city itineraries.

Dubai and the UAE: Established Gateway Still Drives Visitor Flows

While the newest headlines focus on Taif, Kigali and Singapore, Oman’s tourism ambitions remain closely intertwined with the United Arab Emirates, and particularly Dubai. Oman Air has long operated multiple daily flights between Muscat and Dubai, and these services act as a crucial feeder for visitors who pair stops in Oman with stays in Dubai’s established shopping, events and meetings landscape. For travellers from Europe, North America and Asia, Dubai functions as a high-frequency entry point into the Gulf, from which connections to Muscat are increasingly straightforward.

Tourism stakeholders in both countries have been keen to frame the Muscat–Dubai air corridor as complementary rather than competitive. Dubai’s global profile and capacity draw in mass-market and premium visitors who can be encouraged, through joint marketing, to extend their trips into Oman for culture, nature and adventure experiences. At the same time, Omani residents gain easier access to Dubai’s event calendar and air links, feeding demand for short leisure breaks, medical tourism and business trips.

For Oman Air, the Muscat–Dubai route is part of a dense network across the Gulf Cooperation Council, reflected in promotions such as regional fare sales aimed at stimulating intra-GCC travel. That network underpins Omani tourism by making it simple for residents of the UAE and other Gulf states to fly in for holidays in Salalah’s monsoon season, diving in the Daymaniyat Islands or cultural visits in Muscat, Nizwa and Sur.

Rwanda and East Africa: Kigali Route Opens a New Tourism Corridor

Beyond the Gulf, Oman Air’s announcement of direct flights to Kigali, Rwanda, marks a significant step in linking Oman with one of East Africa’s most dynamic tourism and conference destinations. Revealed at a ceremony in Muscat in early 2026, the forthcoming Muscat–Kigali service is positioned as an important facilitator of the growing relationship between Oman and Rwanda, whose diplomatic and trade ties stretch back nearly three decades.

Oman Air and Omani officials say the Kigali route will strengthen two-way tourism, business and investment flows. Rwanda has carved out a reputation as a leader in eco-tourism, attracting travellers with its mountain gorilla trekking, national parks and conservation-driven luxury stays. Kigali itself has emerged as a regional hub for conferences and exhibitions, with a rising volume of meetings, incentives, conferences and events business. Direct connectivity from Muscat gives Gulf-based travellers a new, one-stop path into those experiences, while also enabling African visitors to reach Oman and connect onwards across Oman Air’s network in India, Asia Pacific and Europe.

The flights are scheduled to commence in June 2026, subject to regulatory approvals, with detailed schedules and frequencies to be announced closer to launch. Airport officials in Muscat have described the Kigali link as part of a broader effort to cement Oman’s capital as a gateway between Africa, the Middle East and Asia, complementing existing and planned routes to destinations like Baghdad, Copenhagen, Moscow and Singapore.

Oman’s outreach does not stop at Africa. In December 2025, officials confirmed that Oman Air will inaugurate its first-ever direct flights between Muscat and Singapore on 2 July 2026. The four-times-weekly non-stop service is being hailed by both sides as transformational, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Oman and Singapore and arriving at a moment when Asia Pacific travel is rebounding strongly.

Singaporean diplomats have emphasised that direct connectivity is expected to unlock untapped potential in tourism, trade and investment. For travellers, the Muscat–Singapore route will enable new multi-country itineraries linking Southeast Asia with Oman’s heritage sites, desert landscapes and coastal resorts. For businesses, it will shorten supply-chain and corporate travel routes between Oman and one of Asia’s major logistics, finance and technology hubs.

The Singapore route takes on added importance in light of Oman Air’s membership in the oneworld alliance, which it formally joined in mid-2025. Through oneworld, the Muscat–Singapore link can feed connecting traffic from partner airlines across East Asia, Australasia and North America into Oman and onwards to Europe, as well as channel Omani and Gulf travellers more seamlessly into Asian and Pacific markets.

oneworld Alliance and Network Synergies Drive Growth

Oman Air’s integration into the oneworld alliance has become a central plank in its network expansion and in Oman’s tourism strategy. Alliance membership gives the carrier’s passengers access to an extended global network via partner airlines, while inbound travellers loyal to oneworld members gain new options for reaching Oman using through-ticketing, frequent-flyer benefits and coordinated schedules.

For Oman’s tourism planners, these alliance synergies are practical enablers of growth. A visitor from Europe or North America can now fly on a oneworld carrier into a major hub such as London, Doha, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, and then connect to Oman Air into Muscat, Taif, Kigali or, from mid-2026, Singapore. This web of connections improves load factors on new routes, making them more sustainable and attractive for future frequency increases.

The alliance also elevates Oman’s profile in key source markets, with Oman Air and tourism authorities able to target co-branded campaigns alongside better-known oneworld carriers. The cumulative effect is to position Oman not as an isolated niche destination, but as an integrated stop within broader multi-country journeys that today’s long-haul travellers increasingly prefer.

Economic Impact and Alignment With Oman Vision 2040

Senior executives at Oman Air have repeatedly linked the airline’s route expansion to the country’s wider economic diversification agenda under Oman Vision 2040. The carrier’s leadership has indicated that network and capacity investments have already injected hundreds of millions of Omani rials into the domestic economy through tourism spending, aviation services, employment and related sectors. New routes, including Taif and the forthcoming Kigali and Singapore services, are expected to generate further multiplier effects in hospitality, transport, retail and real estate.

In particular, increased international capacity into Salalah and Muscat, combined with better links to markets such as Saudi Arabia, Rwanda and Singapore, is projected to boost visitor nights and encourage investment in hotels, eco-lodges and experiential tourism products. Oman’s southern Dhofar region, for example, stands to benefit from more accessible summer-season tourism thanks to improved air connectivity and marketing that highlights its cooler khareef climate to Gulf and international travellers.

The government’s approval of new Oman Air services, including long-haul links like Salalah–Moscow and regional connections such as Muscat–Taif, underscores a policy consensus that aviation is one of the fastest ways to capture regional travel demand. The coordinated announcements involving foreign ministers and transport officials from Rwanda and Singapore also suggest that air agreements are increasingly being used as tools of economic diplomacy, pairing route launches with broader trade, investment and cultural cooperation initiatives.

Competitive Regional Landscape and Outlook for Travellers

Oman’s push to expand Oman Air’s network comes amid intense competition among Gulf and regional carriers, with Saudi Arabia launching Riyadh Air as a new national airline and the United Arab Emirates continuing to back growth at its own established hubs. Rather than attempting to match the scale of its larger neighbours, Oman is focusing on targeted routes that complement its tourism offerings and plug gaps in connectivity between key markets.

For travellers, the outcome is an expanding menu of options that make it simpler to design itineraries linking the historic souqs and forts of Oman with Saudi Arabia’s emerging tourism projects, Rwanda’s wildlife and conference experiences, and Singapore’s urban attractions. Frequent services to Dubai and other Gulf cities remain central to this web, ensuring that Oman stays connected to the region’s busiest aviation crossroads even as it carves out its own role as a destination and transit point.

As 2026 progresses, all eyes will be on how quickly the new Taif service matures, how the Kigali launch reshapes Middle East–East Africa travel flows, and how the July debut of Muscat–Singapore resonates with leisure and business travellers in Asia Pacific. Together, these routes represent a concerted, multi-country effort involving partners in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Singapore, Rwanda and beyond to unlock Oman’s tourism potential through more seamless skies.