Muscat: Eng Said bin Hamoud al Maawali, Minister of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology (MTCIT), said on Monday that the ongoing confrontation in the region will have an impact on both the national airlines, Oman Air and SalamAir.
Talking to the Observer on the sidelines of the annual aviation sector media briefing, he said, "The overall aviation sector is going through a change at the moment because of what's happening in the region, which includes an increase in fuel prices, which will affect both airlines, while there will also be fierce competition for the last remaining passengers that want to travel to the region.
He said, "We need to make sure that we have the service at the top-notch level and make sure that we do this while we also control our costs."
When asked whether SalamAir can afford to have a fixed price for Salalah at RO10 at this stage, the minister said, "They can actually afford it, and what we've announced has actually taken into account these factors."
The minister said that during the early days of the conflict, the priority was given to the humanitarian needs by extending our support and commitment to work with our neighbours. "That took precedence over everything."
"Overall, the conflict is not going to be good for the sector. There was a temporary spike in the first couple of weeks in the number of passengers. That's true. There was also a temporary spike in terms of the cargo. We recognise that this is going to stay. The cargo at least will stay for another couple of months. But in terms of passengers, there was a huge dip starting in April because countries, as explained earlier, have been warning or issuing advisories to their citizens not to go to this part of the world. European countries, especially, and we've seen this dip," he said.
There has been a drop in hotel bookings as well. "We're trying to work, as you know, sector along with the tourism sector, on how we can bring in a quick solution and something that will not cause the projected pain. Overall, this is not good news, I think. You know, we should leave it at that."
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