Oman Air, Qatar Airways sign codeshare

Oman Air has signed a codeshare agreement with Qatar Airways, part of the state-owned carrier’s aim to expand its reach through partnerships and alliances.

The agreement will allow Oman Air customers to book flights from any of the 42 departure points within its network to the Qatari capital Doha.

“This codeshare will make travel within the Gulf region easier, effectively extending Oman Air’s network,” said Wayne Pearce, Oman Air’s CEO.

Last month, the Muscat-based carrier reported revenue of OMR311.3m (US$809m) for 2011 and predicted that 2012 revenue would rise by 30 percent.

Oman Air is looking to expand its regional and global reach and last month announced it was in talks to finalise a codeshare agreement with Royal Jordanian.

“Royal Jordanian and Oman Air are working on concluding a codeshare agreement to enable the RJ customers to travel between the two cities under the RJ code,” Royal Jordanian president and CEO Amer Hadidi was quoted as saying in a statement.

In June, Pearce said the carrier was looking to expand its codeshare agreements and was in talks to further target the US and South East Asia through alliances.

“We are looking at the key transatlantic route… I said in [a previous interview] I would build our alliances and I said in particular what we wanted to be able to do was carry traffic across to the States. Some people did go on to report that as being a US carrier,” Pearce said.

“It could well be, but we could also work with one of the major European carriers that has a big network going across. So we are investigating that and we have started that process… There will be more announcements down the line,” he added without naming the carriers it was in talks with.

Oman Air currently has three codeshare partners, including Dubai’s Emirates Airline, Malaysia Airlines and the UK's BMI.

Pearce also said that Southeast Asia was a main focal point. “We have a number of those talks coming along, and some in Southeast Asia and we are making quick progress,” he said.