Gulf carrier Oman Air is to introduce a four times weekly link from its expanding Muscat International Airport base to the Swiss city of Zurich this winter, its sixth destination in Europe. The expansion is part of a wider capacity growth that will see changes to its flights to Bangkok, Frankfurt and Paris CDG. The new flight will launch on October 30 and will be operated by an Airbus A330-200 and Oman Air has developed a split schedule with two daylight and two overnight flights each week.

Oman Air will face competition from Swiss International Air Lines on the route, although the European carrier doesn’t operate a non-stop service with its daily flights routing via Dubai. An estimated 12,000 O&D passengers travelled between Zurich and Muscat in the past year, with a further 5,000 originating or ending their journeys from the wider Swiss market.

Oman Air is the market leader in all the markets that it currently flies to in Europe despite facing direct competition from airlines such as British Airways and Lufthansa. Across the entire continent it holds a 40.1 per cent share of the traffic to and from Muscat with its closest rivals being Qatar Airways (9.4 per cent), Turkish Airlines (7.8 per cent) and KLM Royal Duct Airlines (7.8 per cent).

Alongside the expansion into the Swiss market, Oman Air is to increase capacity to both Frankfurt and Paris CDG. An additional three weekly flights will be introduced to Frankfurt, increasing its schedule to ten flights per week, while Paris CDG will be served by an Airbus A330-300 rather than the -200, introducing a First Class product.

Outside of Europe, Oman Air will also boost its schedules to Bangkok by 50 per cent with the introduction of an additional four weekly rotations. From the end of October it will provide 12 flights per week on a route where it currently has no non-stop competition. Thai Airways International does serve Muscat three times every week but on a through service via the Pakistani city of Karachi. In the past year an estimated 107,000 O&D passengers flew between Muscat and the Thai capital with Oman Air holding a 74 per cent share of the traffic, Thai Airways International 14 per cent, with the remainder leaking via other Middle East hubs through the flights of Qatar Airways, Emirates Airline and Gulf Air.