Oman Air CEO has ‘world class’ dreams
A report says:
The new CEO of Oman Air has revealed his ambitious plans to transform the carrier into a "world-class airline". "It's going to be hard work, but definitely doable," said Peter Hill speaking to ATN exclusively at last month's World Travel Market.By all counts, Oman Air’s earlier colours (white/green/red) were more impressive than the present blue-gold combo. The other day, I was walking past the Oman Air office in CBD at night, and their hoarding in new colours, with lights on, offered a totally depressing sight – so dim and unattractive. This is not the end. Many aircrafts of Oman Air still don’t sport the new livery. Why is the delay in getting branding done across the fleet? With the new CEO stressing on re-designing of the product, it looks like branding will remain the primary concern of top honchos for now. More pressing issues have been pushed to the backburner.
"We need to bring experts into the business, Omanis into the business and put a lot of effort into re-designing the product - that includes the interior, the uniforms and much more."
Hill, the former CEO of SriLankan Airlines when it was managed by Emirates Airline, who was appointed to head up Oman Air four months ago, said he would not change the corporate branding of Oman Air but promised that "everything on board will be fresh and new".
"Over the next two or three years, I want Oman Air's image in the market to be one of the rising international airlines and in five years, to be considered a world-class airline." (more)
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7 Comments:
The poor guy is really going to have his hands full trying to turn them into an airline worth flying on. Aged planes, pathetic inflight magazine, food so shocking I shudder at the thought of eating it. Add that to inept, unhelpful office staff and thier cabin crew...
Oman air has The worst cabin crew in the world, bar none.
I actually saw the cabin crew hit a passenger... not once, but twice on two seperate flights. THe poor guys were labourers returning home, and since they were totally ilitterate, couldn't figure out which seat to go to. Unbeliveable.
I would begin by firing 75% of the staff, and starting from scratch.
Oman Air sucks!
I hv to travel on it coz the Minstry gives the ticket on them!
I like Gulf Air...
Suburban is so right, ew, the food...I think I will take somethng cooked if I have stay in that flight more than 2 hrs.
And the seats, I have to squeeze my ass into them...
The delay in painting the new colors on the remaining planes is due to a delay in delivery of new planes caused by the long strike at Boeing. Oman Air needs to have all its planes flying and can't afford to take planes off schedule for the few days that it takes to repaint the exterior. They were hoping to receive a few new 737s earlier this year but the strike caused long delays.
According to this interview they will be leasing some Airbus A330s by March so the long haul flights will finally be in comfortable planes and then towards the end of next year they will have their own A330s.
It's a very difficult task turning around a bad airline, but I think Peter Hill might be the right person for this task if they give him a free hand to do what he thinks is needed. I'm glad that there is a very clear mission statement for the airline and a clear strategy. They have no plans to become a global giant. They have no plans to turn Muscat into a transit hub. The goal is for Oman Air to connect Oman to the cities that Omanis travel to the most and which bring the most tourists to Oman. The switch from Gatwick to Heathrow is a great start. It would be perfect if they can add Paris, Frankfurt and Kuala Lumpur to their network in 2009.
suburban
Agree completely.
bobby
Gulf Air is another story, I love Jet Airways for now.
muscati
Peter Hill is a taskmaster, so much that he fell into the bad books of Sri Lankan president for not obeying his orders to offload passengers to fit in president's entourage sometime back. A lot of 'jokers' in the second rung may derail Peter’s world-class dreams. It’s been a longtime they have launched a new destination, and with financial meltdown, the expansion will be much slower than expected.
Kishor, the planes have been ordered and there's no turning back. They are getting 5 A330s starting September next year. One will do the daily London-Muscat route and one will be on the Bangkok route. The other three have to go somewhere. Economic meltdown or not, some new destinations will have to be launched. After that, the Boeing 787 deliveries which are scheduled for 2012 onwards will probably be pushed to 2014 because Boeing is more than 2 years behind schedule in the launch of that airplane. However due to the economic crises, Oman Air will probably have lots of options if they decide to pursue other options. Many airlines are canceling orders and Oman Air can probably get their production slots with Boeing and Airbus if they so choose.
I flew with them into Gatwick and back – Gatwick though an awful airport is far easier than Heathrow to get around .and the rail access is great. You cant expect them to turnaround overnight – as Muscati says planes take time to deliver and slots at major airports are hard to get - but a financial meltdown can ease both areas. Yes, the in-flight service was iffy, and the plane shabby etc – but I’ve flown worse. If they can use it as a promotional tool for Oman and replace the East Europeans with people more culturally appropriate to Oman and its population mix that will be great. Peter Hill seems to understand that if a service provider is to succeed it will be the service that will be key to its success.
I'm with Muscati on this.
Oman Air have come along in leaps and bounds over the past couple of years.
The service on board is great - even in Economy.
They are wet leasing Airbus A300 series aircraft for their London Gatwick and Bangkok routes, but the cabin crew are Oman Air's own team.
I was stuffed the gills on a recent flight to London with them.
The changeover to Heathrow is a majorly good move. And brings Oman Air into the realms of the legacy carriers that it is trying to compete with.
20 minutes into central London on the Heathrow Express - this will work very well.
The new paint scheme is far, far, far , far better than the original red khanjar design - which in my opinion is the worst design in all of the GCC.
The new one has catapulted Oman Air to the top of the livery design league now, with only Gulf Air as a viable contender.
As Muscati points out, the delay to the repainting of the rest of the machines is down to the delay at Boeing, however, I have been told that the remaining ugly red ones will be off to Bristol for a respray on the next month or two.
They have already extended the wet lease of one 737 to cater for the absence of each of their own machines, so it is definitely happening.
Mr. Hill will make things work from his end but he will need the full support of those above and around him. The days of wasta based supply has to stop. It needs to be quality product. It is at the moment but things need to get better.
Female staff uniform shirts are epileptic fit inducing and the male ground staff need some serious lessons in grooming and uniform pride.
Oman Air is right on the verge of achieving world-class airline status. Let's hope it stays that way.
JD
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