Bangalore June 16 (PTI): As part of its expansion plans, Oman Air on Monday announced a five-times-a-week flight to Bangalore from Muscat.

Close on the heels of connecting Kozhikode, Oman Air began operations to IT hub Bangalore, making it as its tenth destination in India and the 12th in the Indian sub-continent, the Airlines Country Manager Muhammad Salem told a press conference here.

Oman Air after pulling out of Gulf Air and operating independently with its government support also charted a fleet expansion plan, he said. It would add two 737 Boeing this year and five similar aircraft next year.

Besides this, five Air Bus 330, 200 and 300 will also join the fleet next year, he said.

The carrier, which currently operates 73 flights into India, was looking at expanding to destinations such as Mangalore, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, which it considers as high density areas, Salem said.

“We have initiated process seeking approval from the Indian Government”, he said.

Abdulrazaq J Alraisi, Senior Manager (Sales) said: “we exepect full load of passengers from Bangalore as it has huge software engineers flying from here”.

Omar Air, besides offering holiday packages, wanted to promote tourism package and market Bangalore as Medical tourism destinations among Oman people, as several come to India for treatment, he said.

Aviation fuel hike has hit the airlines budget, he said and anticipated the situation would change.

Source: mangalorean.com