Oman is sharpening its focus on regional aircraft and new air routes as it seeks to accelerate tourism and business travel growth across the Gulf, the wider Middle East and key international markets. A combination of network expansion by full service carrier Oman Air, rapid growth at low cost airline SalamAir and major upgrades at the country’s airports is reshaping how visitors and business travelers move in and out of the Sultanate. Aligned with Oman Vision 2040, the strategy places regional connectivity at the heart of economic diversification, aiming to turn Muscat and Salalah into competitive hubs for point to point and connecting traffic.

Regional Connectivity at the Core of Vision 2040

Tourism and air transport are central pillars of Oman Vision 2040, the national roadmap that seeks to reduce the economy’s reliance on hydrocarbons and unlock new sources of growth. Aviation policy has been designed to support this shift by improving access not only from long haul markets in Europe and Asia, but also from neighboring Gulf states, the Indian subcontinent and emerging regional cities. Short and medium haul routes are viewed as critical feeders that can sustain year round demand and spread visitor flows beyond peak holiday seasons.

Oman’s Civil Aviation Authority and Oman Airports are working closely with the country’s airlines and tourism officials to prioritize routes that can stimulate investment, trade and inbound leisure traffic. Rather than pursuing rapid, headline grabbing expansion, planners are favoring a measured strategy that optimizes fleet use and focuses on markets with demonstrable demand, from Saudi Arabia’s growing secondary cities to fast developing destinations in South and Southeast Asia. This has placed renewed emphasis on efficient regional aircraft and narrowbody fleets capable of operating profitably on thinner routes.

The overall objective is to position Muscat as a nimble connector linking Gulf and Indian Ocean markets, while also strengthening Salalah and Duqm as gateways to Oman’s southern and central regions. Regional aircraft play an important role in this effort, allowing operators to flex capacity, test new routes and connect smaller cities to the global network without the risk profile of deploying widebody jets.

Oman Air’s Network Expansion and Fleet Strategy

National carrier Oman Air has emerged from restructuring with a sharper focus on sustainable growth and commercially viable regional flying. The airline’s transformation program, initiated in 2023, has aimed to return the company to financial breakeven while improving service quality and reinforcing its role in supporting the national tourism strategy. Recent performance figures indicate that the carrier has delivered strong growth and improved commercial performance in 2025, underpinned by more disciplined network planning and capacity management.

Oman Air’s current fleet is centered on Boeing 737 narrowbodies for short and medium haul services, alongside Boeing 787 Dreamliners for long haul operations to Europe and Asia. Although the airline previously operated a small subfleet of Embraer 175 regional jets, these aircraft were phased out several years ago as part of a move toward simplification. Today, the 737 family functions as the backbone of regional flying, giving the carrier the flexibility to serve both high density trunk routes and emerging markets within a single-type narrowbody operation.

The airline has concentrated on building a strong regional footprint, serving more than 40 destinations across the Gulf, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Africa and the Far East from its Muscat hub. High frequency services to GCC capitals such as Doha, Dubai, Riyadh and Kuwait are complemented by an extensive schedule to Indian cities including Delhi, Chennai, Kochi, Bangalore and Mumbai, as well as key leisure and labor markets like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam. This network is intentionally weighted toward sectors that fall within the performance envelope of narrowbody aircraft.

New Routes Target Tourism and Business Demand

In the last year, Oman Air has accelerated the launch of new routes that directly support tourism and business travel growth. In December 2025, the airline inaugurated a fifth freedom service linking Muscat to Copenhagen via Baghdad, marking its first direct engagement with both Iraq and Denmark. The route serves multiple strategic aims: connecting a growing Nordic market to Oman’s leisure offerings, tapping into business and reconstruction demand tied to Iraq, and using the Muscat hub to channel two way traffic between Europe and the Gulf region.

Also in late 2025, Oman Air announced the introduction of nonstop flights between Muscat and Taif, a city in western Saudi Arabia that is emerging as a tourism and religious travel gateway. Scheduled to start on January 31, 2026, the Muscat Taif route will operate three times weekly, using Boeing 737 aircraft and adding a fifth destination for the airline in Saudi Arabia alongside Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam and Madinah. The move closely aligns with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 tourism ambitions, opening new flows of visitors in both directions and strengthening economic ties between the two neighboring states.

Looking further east, the carrier has confirmed plans to launch direct flights between Muscat and Singapore from July 2, 2026. The new route, scheduled four times a week, will deepen Oman’s links with Southeast Asia, offering Singapore based travelers a new gateway to the Arabian Peninsula and giving Omani business and leisure passengers faster access to one of Asia’s major financial and logistics centers. When combined with existing services to Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Manila, the Singapore route underlines the role of regional aircraft and mid range narrowbodies in stitching together a broad Indo Pacific network tailored to tourism and trade.

Domestic connectivity is a critical part of Oman’s aviation strategy, and regional aircraft operations between Muscat and secondary cities are at the heart of this effort. Oman Air and SalamAir both operate domestic services to Salalah, Khasab and Duqm, supporting tourism flows to Oman’s coastal and heritage regions and creating opportunities for business development in ports, free zones and logistics hubs. Muscat Salalah, in particular, has become one of the country’s busiest routes as the Dhofar region’s Khareef monsoon season continues to attract rising numbers of visitors from across the Gulf.

During recent Khareef seasons Oman Air has repeatedly boosted capacity on the Muscat Salalah corridor, reaching up to a dozen daily flights in peak periods and adding more seats year on year. The airline reports that 2025 saw a double digit increase in capacity and passenger numbers to Salalah compared with both 2024 and 2022, and it has introduced charter services, including a direct Moscow Salalah operation, to capture seasonal tourist demand from Russia and other European markets. These services are expected to bring hundreds of thousands of additional visitors to the Dhofar region by 2030, generating significant tourism revenues.

At the same time, Oman Air has confirmed fixed economy class fares for Omani citizens on the Muscat Salalah route, maintaining year round capped prices and further reducing them during the Khareef season. By combining increased capacity with price stability, the airline is working to ensure that domestic air travel remains accessible for residents while still attracting high spending regional tourists who are drawn by Salalah’s cooler summer climate and natural scenery. The reliance on efficient narrowbody aircraft, operated at high utilization, is central to making this model sustainable.

SalamAir’s Low Cost Model and Regional Fleet Growth

Complementing Oman Air’s full service model, SalamAir has emerged as a powerful regional growth engine using a dedicated narrowbody and regional aircraft fleet. The Muscat based low cost carrier, which began operations in 2017, now operates around 15 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft and has built a network that stretches from the Balkans and Central Asia to East Africa and the Indian subcontinent. From the outset, SalamAir’s strategy has been to connect Oman affordably with high demand regional destinations, stimulating new traffic segments that may not have flown at legacy carrier fare levels.

In 2024 the airline carried more than 3.2 million passengers, a 20 percent increase on the previous year, and it expects to handle over 4 million travelers in 2025. In response to this growth, SalamAir announced plans in early 2025 to lease 10 additional Airbus A320 aircraft over the next three years, increasing its fleet to 25 aircraft by 2028. The expanded fleet will allow the carrier to add new destinations and frequencies across the Gulf, the Indian subcontinent and North Africa, with a particular focus on supporting inbound tourism to Oman and expanding point to point regional links that bypass traditional hubs.

SalamAir has also been strengthening its role in domestic connectivity, particularly between Muscat and Salalah during Khareef. The airline reports record growth during the 2025 season and has signaled its intention to develop Salalah as a year round operational base. That strategy will rely on deploying its narrowbody aircraft on a mix of scheduled and charter flights, connecting Dhofar with secondary cities in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf Cooperation Council states, as well as with source markets in South Asia.

In parallel, SalamAir is preparing to introduce new generation Embraer E2 regional jets from late 2026 or early 2027, according to industry reports. These aircraft will give the airline the ability to serve thinner routes that are not viable with larger narrowbodies, opening up opportunities to connect smaller cities in Oman and neighboring countries and to test new markets with lower commercial risk. For travelers, the addition of regional jets should translate into more nonstop options, shorter door to door journeys and access to destinations that previously required long surface transfers.

Airports and Infrastructure: Building a Modern Regional Hub

The expansion of regional aircraft operations and routes is being underpinned by ongoing investment in Oman’s airport infrastructure. Muscat International Airport and Salalah Airport have been developed with modern terminal facilities, ample capacity for narrowbody and widebody traffic and an increasing focus on passenger experience. Oman Airports, the state owned operator, has also been tasked with ensuring that secondary gateways such as Duqm and Sohar are equipped to handle growing regional operations and charter services linked to industrial and tourism projects.

In late 2025 Oman Airports made international headlines by becoming the first airport group in the world to roll out Wi Fi 7 technology across its facilities in partnership with a major global telecommunications provider. The upgrade promises significantly higher internet speeds, lower latency and stronger security for passengers, airlines and airport operations, aligning with Oman Vision 2040’s emphasis on digital transformation. For business travelers in particular, the ability to work efficiently while in transit reinforces the appeal of Muscat and Salalah as convenient connecting points in the region.

The government is also advancing multi modal connectivity around key airports, linking terminals with road networks, ports and industrial zones. Duqm, home to a major port and special economic zone, has been identified as a future aviation and logistics hub, supported by the development of Duqm Airport and the nearby Etlaq Spaceport project. While space launch activities remain at an early stage, the consolidation of logistics and high technology clusters around Duqm signals Oman's broader ambition to position itself as a regional node for advanced industries, which in turn will drive demand for specialized business travel and charter operations.

Implications for Travelers and Regional Competition

For international travelers, Oman's focus on regional aircraft and new routes is translating into a wider choice of itineraries, more direct city pairs and increased schedule flexibility. Visitors from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain now enjoy multiple daily frequencies to Muscat on both full service and low cost carriers, with onward connections to Salalah, Duqm and coastal towns as well as to long haul destinations in Europe and Asia. Passengers from India and Southeast Asia can take advantage of growing nonstops and one stop options via Muscat, often at competitive fares compared with larger regional hubs.

The growth of routes such as Muscat Taif, Muscat Copenhagen via Baghdad and the forthcoming Muscat Singapore services reflects a broader regional trend in which mid sized carriers are targeting niche and underserved markets. Rather than competing head on with mega hubs purely on volume, Oman is betting on service quality, ease of transit and the appeal of the country as a destination in its own right. The introduction of advanced onboard products, stable pricing on key domestic sectors and investments in digital tools such as mobile apps and online booking platforms all contribute to a more traveler friendly proposition.

At the same time, the emphasis on regional aircraft exposes Omani carriers to competitive pressure from neighboring airlines that are also building extensive narrowbody fleets. Low cost operators based in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar continue to expand aggressively into overlapping markets. To maintain an edge, Oman Air and SalamAir are likely to place increasing weight on schedule coordination, code sharing and partnerships that allow them to feed traffic into and out of Muscat efficiently while still differentiating on hospitality and on the natural attractions that Oman can offer as a stopover or primary destination.

Outlook: A Measured but Ambitious Growth Path

Looking ahead, Oman’s aviation sector appears set on a measured but ambitious growth path that hinges on the smart use of regional aircraft and targeted network expansion. The period from 2026 through the end of the decade will see new routes come online, including additional services to Saudi Arabia and Southeast Asia, alongside fleet growth and modernization at both Oman Air and SalamAir. The introduction of Embraer E2 regional jets and further Airbus narrowbodies will give Omani carriers the tools to deepen domestic and near regional connectivity, experiment with new markets and adjust capacity quickly in response to demand.

For the tourism industry, these developments offer significant upside. Greater air access to Salalah, Musandam, the Hajar Mountains and coastal regions such as Sur will make it easier for tour operators to package multi destination itineraries and for independent travelers to explore beyond Muscat. Improved links to high value source markets such as northern Europe, Russia, Singapore and key Indian cities will help extend peak seasons and diversify the visitor base, supporting investments in hotels, experiences and cultural attractions across the country.

For business travelers and investors, enhanced air connectivity will reduce travel times to Oman's industrial zones, free zones and emerging technology hubs, while more competitive fare structures from both full service and low cost carriers should lower the cost of doing business in and with the Sultanate. If current plans stay on track, Oman’s deliberate focus on regional aircraft and new routes may not only strengthen its position as a boutique tourism destination, but also cement its status as a nimble and increasingly influential aviation player in the Gulf and wider Middle East.