MUSCAT: Oman’s budget carrier SalamAir is still waiting for approvals to fly to India from Muscat, Captain Mohamed Ahmed, the airline’s CEO said.

Speaking exclusively to The Arabian Stories, Captain Mohamed said India will be an important destination for his airline. “Today if they give me the traffic lights, I will fly to India. India is an important destination. We know that our future and all the expansion plans are being planned considering India will be part of our destination. Indians are one among the largest community here in Oman and the whole region. Today a middle-class Indian frequently travels and we would like to take some share of that market (India),” he said.  

Captain Mohamed said the Oman officials are trying to get the approval for the airline to fly to India. “We are still awaiting the approval from the authorities to fly to India. I personally travelled to New Delhi a lot of times and met top officials. Our authorities are also trying to help us get the nod. We are an official airline and we have already approved with all the security clearances but the only hurdle is the traffic lights between Oman and India is set at a certain level at the moment. However, any increase in seat numbers, will give us the space to fly to India and we are waiting for that,” he said in an interview with The Arabian Stories Executive Director Nishad Padiyarath. 

But that is not stopping the region’s biggest low-cost carrier from expanding elsewhere in south Asia. SalamAir is already flying to Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In 2019, the SalamAir carried over 1.9 million passengers from 25 destinations.