Oman Air needs to 'shrink' before return to growth, CEO says
Oman Air is cutting unprofitable routes, simplifying its fleet, reducing costs and resizing its workforce as part of a turnaround plan to "fix foundations" before returning to growth, its CE has said. The state-owned airline, which announced its first new route in five years with the launch of flights to Rome in December, aims to expand in 2025 through better aircraft utilisation and increasing flight frequencies, Con Korfiatis said during the Routes World conference in Bahrain. The airline also aims to break even by 2027 as part of its restructuring plan that began at the end of last year, he said. "If you're putting up a two-storey house, you build the foundations for a two-storey house, but over the years we became a five-storey house on the same foundation. So it's time to fix those foundations and then you can go back to growth," Korfiatis said in an interview on the sidelines of the event. Korfiatis, who has 30 years of experience in the aviation industry, was appointed CE of the airline in May with the remit of steering the airline's transformation to turn its finances around. A strong flag carrier is needed to help implement Oman's Vision 2040 plan to diversify its economy and reduce its reliance on oil revenue. Under that, the sultanate aims to increase the tourism sector’s contribution to 10% of GDP and attract 11.7m tourists by 2040. The World Tourism and Travel Council (WTTC) forecasts that Oman's travel and tourism sector's contribution to the GDP in 2024 will exceed 3.3b Oman rials ($8.6b), or 7.6% of the economy, up from 2.8b rials in 2023. The sector is projected to employ more than 206,000 people this year, up from 191,500 last year.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2024-10-14/unaligned/oman-air-needs-to-shrink-before-return-to-growth-ceo-says
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Oman Air needs to 'shrink' before return to growth, CEO says
Oman Air is cutting unprofitable routes, simplifying its fleet, reducing costs and resizing its workforce as part of a turnaround plan to "fix foundations" before returning to growth, its CE has said. The state-owned airline, which announced its first new route in five years with the launch of flights to Rome in December, aims to expand in 2025 through better aircraft utilisation and increasing flight frequencies, Con Korfiatis said during the Routes World conference in Bahrain. The airline also aims to break even by 2027 as part of its restructuring plan that began at the end of last year, he said. "If you're putting up a two-storey house, you build the foundations for a two-storey house, but over the years we became a five-storey house on the same foundation. So it's time to fix those foundations and then you can go back to growth," Korfiatis said in an interview on the sidelines of the event. Korfiatis, who has 30 years of experience in the aviation industry, was appointed CE of the airline in May with the remit of steering the airline's transformation to turn its finances around. A strong flag carrier is needed to help implement Oman's Vision 2040 plan to diversify its economy and reduce its reliance on oil revenue. Under that, the sultanate aims to increase the tourism sector’s contribution to 10% of GDP and attract 11.7m tourists by 2040. The World Tourism and Travel Council (WTTC) forecasts that Oman's travel and tourism sector's contribution to the GDP in 2024 will exceed 3.3b Oman rials ($8.6b), or 7.6% of the economy, up from 2.8b rials in 2023. The sector is projected to employ more than 206,000 people this year, up from 191,500 last year.<br/>
