Which carrier has Oman Air just signed its second Thai codeshare with?

Oman Air announced the development of its Asia Pacific network this week when it released details of its new codeshare agreement with Bangkok Airways. The agreement, which went into action immediately on April 1st, was signed by Aboudy Nasser (above, centre right), senior vice president of network planning & revenue management for Oman Air and Pakorn Rattanarod (centre, left), director of route profitability and alliance for Bangkok Airways.

Under the agreement, Oman Air will put its “WY” designator code on Bangkok Airways flights, serving eight domestic routes. This includes well known destinations in Thailand such as Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Krabi, Lampang, Trat, Sukhothai and Samui. With Thailand’s unshakeable appeal to tourists across the planet, the deal is of great importance to Oman’s national carrier, which has seen a steady and persistent passenger growth on its services to the country.

Codeshares are an essential part of Oman Air’s expansion strategy, who hold extant agreements with Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, Gulf Air, Etihad, Ethiopian Airlines, Royal Jordanian, Turkish Airlines, Sri Lankan Airlines, KLM, Garuda Airlines, Thai Airways, Saudia, Malaysia Airlines and Kenyan Airways. And, the agreement with Bangkok Airways is the latest such deal with a Thai carrier after sharing ink, for flights between Muscat and Bangkok, with Thai Airways Company (THAI) in January 2016.

Bangkok Airways has fifteen codeshare agreements; Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, El Al, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Garuda Indonesia, Japan Airlines, Jet Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas Airways. As well as Qatar Airways, SilkAir, Thai Airways and Xiamen Airlines.

Oman Airlines currently operates direct international flights from Muscat to Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai, Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Madina, and Kuwait, in the Gulf region, as well as Cairo, Amman, Tehran, Mashhad, Najaf, Zanzibar and Dar Es Salaam within the wider Middle East/Africa region.

In addition Oman Air flies to eleven destinations in India, Pakistan; Kathmandu Nepal and Sri Lanka. Its European destinations are London, Manchester, Milan, Munich, Frankfurt, Paris and Zurich. New destinations to be launched as 2018 unfurls are Istanbul in June; Casablanca in July and Moscow at the end of October.