Come news "fresca" ho trovato questa in rete,anche se non fornisce dettagli ma conferma il volo entro l'anno.Sri Lanka part of larger Oman Air Asian strategy: officialFeb 27, 2010 (LBO) - Oman Air's new service Sri Lanka and the Maldives is the first of a series of new routes to South Asia and part of the Middle Eastern carrier's strategy to become a bigger player in the Asian air travel market, a top official said.
"This year Oman Air will be commencing operation to Kathmandu (in Nepal), Dhaka (in Bangladesh), Lahore and Islamabad (in Pakistan)," chief executive Peter Hill said in Colombo.
Oman Air is already flying to Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Delhi, Lucknow, Bangalore, Kozhikode and Jaipur (in India), Karachi (in Pakistan) and Chittagong (in Bangladesh).
The airline will also open routes to Dar es Salaam in Africa and Milan in Italy this year to broaden its network in Africa and Europe. Oman Air started its Muscat-Colombo-Male service in November catering to the holiday market in the Maldives and Sri Lanka as well as the migrant labour traffic to the Middle East.
Hill says Oman Air is enjoying cabin factors, or the share of seats sold against the available capacity of 70 to 80 percent flying to Colombo via Maldives and expects business to grow.
"Many Sri Lankans are working there and are a major part of our economy and travel up and down many times. We want to benefit from that," Hill said.
"We are expecting a substantial amount of revenue to come from cargo, mostly exports from Sri Lanka and Male."
Oman Air four operates weekly frequencies to Colombo on Airbus A330-300 series wide bodied aircraft in economy and business class configurations.
"Into Sri Lanka Oman Air has a two class product, normally it’s a three class product," Hill said.
Currently Oman Air fleet consists of 15 Boeing 737-800 aircrafts, two A330-200 aircrafts and two A330-300 aircrafts.
In 2010 and 2011 three A330-300 series aircraft are to be delivered.
Oman Air has ordered five Embraer 175 aircraft with purchasing rights for additional five and seven Boeing 787 aircraft to be delivered in 2014, the airline said.
Hill said they don’t want to grow too fast.
"Oman Air is a commercial airline, sure we got some money from the government but we paid it back," Hill said.
"I'm no stranger to paying back loans and getting into profitability."
Hill headed SriLankan airlines after Emirates took management control in 1998 with a 40 percent equity stake.
Under him the airline re-fleeted and also opened several routes from Colombo via Maldives playing surrogate carrier to the archipelago when tourist traffic to the island plummeted following a Tamil Tiger separate assault on the main airport in 2001.
But he left airline following a breakdown in relations with the Sri Lanka government, which was the majority shareholder.
If given the opportunity Oman Air would like to form an alliance with SriLankan airlines, Hill said on the sidelines of the media conference.
"It's always good to form an alliance with a national carrier," Hill said.
http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/full ... =752845151