PIA adds Lahore-Salalah route

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has added Salalah, Oman to its flight destinations. The inaugural flight, PK235, departed from Lahore at 12:30pm on December 1.

Flights on the Lahore-Salalah-Lahore sector will operate twice a week, every Thursday and Sunday.

PIA is already flying to Muscat, the capital of Oman, and with these additional twice-weekly flights to Salalah, PIA hopes to further boost the link between the two countries and within the region.

PIA CEO Bernd Hildenbrand said that PIA is expanding its fleet and flights on profitable routes are being increased, especially to places where there is a sizeable expatriate Pakistani community.

Oman Air adds seats to Salalah

Source: Oman Air.

Oman Air has provided a boost to its services to Salalah over the summer months in respond to customer demand. The national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman is expanding its capacity to the Dhofar region in southern Oman by an additional of almost 23,000 seats, compared with the previous year.

The unprecedented increase will see Oman Air offer a total of 317,600 seats to and from Salalah. The increased capacity has been enabled by an increase in flight frequencies between Salalah and Muscat, and between Salalah and Dubai in the UAE. Eleven flights per day are now operating between Salalah and Muscat. In addition, the deployment of Boeing 737, Boeing 787 and Airbus 330 aircraft on the Salalah/Muscat/Salalah sectors is complementing the increased frequencies and further enhancing capacity. 

The move by the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman underlines its long-term commitment to supporting economic growth in the Dhofar Governorate. It also continues Oman Air’s year-on-year expansion on routes out of Salalah, which last year saw a record 52,274 seats offered by the carrier on flights between Salalah and Dubai. In 2016, Oman Air increased that number by 46%, or 22,000 seats, to 74,176 seats. The 12,044 additional seats offered between Salalah and Dubai this summer will further enhance capacity.

Salalah has experienced significant growth in the number of visitors it receives, especially during the khareef (summer monsoon) period. The khareef sees the southern-most tip of Oman transformed from a dry desert into a green carpet, where brilliant flowers bloom and wildlife abounds. Visitors from around the world, and especially the GCC region, come to experience the cooling mists and rains which envelop the area, contrasting sharply with the heat found elsewhere within the Gulf.

Exceptional efforts been made to boost tourist facilities and services in Dhofar. These include an expansion of its hotel sector and the establishment of the Salalah Tourism Festival, of which Oman Air is the Official Airline and a major sponsor. As the khareef continues, Oman Air will continue to monitor demand on the Salalah/Muscat and Salalah/Dubai sectors. Should there be a requirement from customers, consideration will be given to further increases in the number of flights operated and the number of seats offered.

Salalah Airport marks first birthday

Source: OAMC. Salalah Airport.

Salalah Airport has marked the first anniversary of its launch, the Oman Airports Management Company (OAMC) has announced.

Salim bin Awadh Al Yafei, Director General of Salalah Airport said, “OAMC staff along with our strategic partners are proud to celebrate this occasion; marking the first anniversary of the landing of the first ever aircraft at the Salalah Airport on June 15, 2015. The airport, which was officially launched in November 2015, has since played a prominent role in driving the economic and touristic growth in both the Dhofar region and the Sultanate as a whole. We are confident that the role played by the airport will be gradually enhanced in the coming years,” he added.

Salalah Airport can currently accommodate as many as two million passengers annually, and has already catered to 1, 002,653 passengers from the time it opened for operations in June 2015 till the end of April 2016. Given an expected rise in tourism, plans are already in place to increase the capacity of the airport to 4 to 6 million passengers in the future. 

The airport is equipped with 24 kiosks to facilitate the completion of travel procedures; which include an area dedicated to Oman Air flights, an area for other flights, and two additional independent self-service kiosks. The airport is also equipped with four passenger boarding bridges (PBB), used for the first time in Oman.

State-of-the-art technology was also implemented for the baggage handling system of the airport. This system significantly improves the capacity of baggage handling at the airport whilst also implementing a more reliable and efficient sorting system. Additionally, a new system provides accurate and instant information regarding flights to and from Salalah Airport. 

Ooredoo rolls out tourist promotion for khareef season

Source: Ooredoo.

Ooredoo has launched a promotion to enable prepaid users visiting this year’s Salalah Tourism Festival to share more of their holiday with friends and family. The Ooredoo Visitor Line will provide residents and tourists to the Sultanate with cost efficient, convenient, and reliable services during the khareef season, the autumn monsoon season which ends in September. Prepaid users signing up to the new Visitor Line will also get the opportunity to take advantage of Ooredoo’s ‘More’ packages to give them great value during their stay.

The offer will give tourists in Oman everything they need to stay connected with 1GB of data, 60 minutes talk time, and 60 local and international SMSes. Customers can enjoy instant access to apps such as Snapchat, Whatsapp and Instagram. Tourists can also benefit from all other existing prepaid offers, including More Internet, More International and More Credit, to give them extra value on data, call minutes or credit.

Feras Al Shaikh, Director of Consumer Sales at Ooredoo said: “With more than 1.8 million visitors from all over the world expected to travel to Salalah this year, Ooredoo decided to take the initiative and introduce an offer tailored to meeting and satisfying their needs. Keeping the Sultanate’s guests in touch with loved ones was our aspiration, which was designed to provide users with maximum comfort and convenience during their stay. This is our way of welcoming them to khareef and Oman.”

“Providing our customers with the highest levels of connectivity is what our More products are all about; delivering a competitive package exceptional service with unrivalled performance and reliability. This promotion will inspire users to talk more, connect more, and share more with family and friends no matter where they are in the world” said Feras.

As the main sponsor of the Salalah Tourism Festival, Ooredoo has constructed a stand at the festival grounds that will enable it to service twice the amount of customers from last year. Ooredoo has also deployed additional 2G, 3G+ and 4G sites in preparation for khareef.

Interested?

Enquire at the 31 Ooredoo stores located across the Sultanate or check the website

Read the TechTrade Asia blog post on advances in the Ooredoo network in recent years.