Taking To The Skies

Francois Butelleir, CEO of the Gulf region's youngest carrier SalamAir, explains why low cost travel is not losing its appeal in the current climate.

- Robert Anderson

For many in the Gulf aviation industry the current period of low oil prices and global volatility has created its own set of challenges.

Reduced corporate demand, travel restrictions and other hurdles have led to job losses, hiring freezes and route cuts for airlines operating in the region in recent months, with US restrictions on large electronics only adding to their misery.

But for François Boutellier, CEO of low cost Omani carrier SalamAir, there has been arguably no better time to enter the market.

“It’s the best time to do it in fact,” he says. “Companies and governments are all looking into savings, the Oman budget has been reduced so they are very interested at all levels to actually reduce their expenses in terms of travel and we are here to offer alternatives, good timings and very competitive fares.”

Since launching at the end of January, with its maiden flight between the southern city of Salalah and Omani capital Muscat, SalamAir has sought to craft its own niche in a regional market with already heavy carrier representation.

In February it launched twice-daily flights from Muscat to Dubai World Central and in April it began flights to Jeddah, with other locations including Karachi, Sialkot and Multan in Pakistan and Madinah and Taif in Saudi Arabia also on the horizon.

“Some routes are performing better than others but the domestic market is doing very well and the opening of Saudi has been really promising, with good load factors and a real interest in the market.

“For us there is a shift in terms of flights in order to better accommodate demand for Ramadan, so we’ll have more flights to Saudi and we’ll open Taif as well as an additional Saudi destination, and we'll serve more the domestic market,” he says.