Oman Air to join Oneworld on June 30, 2025

Oman Air will officially join the Oneworld alliance on June 30, 2025, pushing back from an expected “late 2024” timeline, and is also considering adding a new top tier to its Sindbad rewards program to line up against Oneworld Emerald status.

Oman Air CEO Con Korfiatis confirmed the new timetable to Executive Traveller, adding that the Muscat-based airline would “have some fun growing again” as more aircraft joined the fleet, including two new Boeing 787s in “early 2025” and then six more for delivery from 2027.

“But we’re not going to be insane about (growth)”, promises Korfiatis, who is intent on returning the airline to “break even by end of ’26, sometime early ’27.”

“(So) we’ll be pragmatic and rely on the good relationships we're building through Oneworld and a couple of other key partnerships that we have, to deliver that global platform through our alliances.”

Korfiatis also revealed that Oman Air planned to resume double-daily flights to London Heathrow in late 2026, by taking back a pair of valuable Heathrow take-off and landing slots which have been leased out to another airline for several years.

As to those two new Boeing 787s slated for the first half of 2025, one of these will be painted in a special Oneworld livery to celebrate Oman Air’s entry into the alliance on 30 June – a date which the airline says is tied to several factors in its ongoing transformation program.

That includes the rollout of new fare types, explains Oman Air Chief Commercial Officer Mick Rutter, which from December 3 will include “Super Saver, Comfort and Flex” in both economy and business.

This “fare class realignment... is the leading edge activity for joining an alliance,” Rutter told Executive Traveller, as this involves “every partner mapping every fare class to every fare class in another airline... so that’s why we chose June 30 as opposed to say January 1.”

A new top Sindbad status tier?

From its hub at Muscat International Airport, Oman Air flies to five Oneworld member airline hubs – Amman, Colombo, Doha, Kuala Lumpur and London Heathrow – and already codeshares with Oneworld members Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian and SriLankan Airlines.

When Oman Air is flying under the Oneworld banner as of June 30 2025, this will unlock earn-and-burn potential for frequent flyers across all Oneworld member airlines, plus reciprocal status benefits aligned to Oman Air’s Sindbad loyalty program.

With that in mind, Oman Air is considering adding a third elite status tier to its Sindbad loyalty scheme, above Sindbad Silver and Sindbad Gold, which would be equivalent to Oneworld Emerald status.

“I think we will join with two tiers and we are working right now on finalising whether our Gold tier will map into Emerald or Sapphire,” an Oman Air spokesman told Executive Traveller, “and then in the course of next year we will introduce the third tier, which will definitely map into Emerald.”

“Gold could map into Emerald, but if we do that there’ll be a downgrade for some members.”

“So we are thinking from a customer perspective, it might be better to start off with Gold mapped to Sapphire, and then when we create the third tier, we upgrade some members who meet the criteria into Emerald.”

Key benefits for the new highest-level Sindbad tier would include access to Oman Air’s flagship first class lounge at Muscat alongside “ancillary discounts” when purchasing additional Oman Air products or services.

After Oman Air, Fiji Airways is likely to join Oneworld in late 2025, while Hawaiian Airlines and even Taiwan’s Starlux have been tipped as future Oneworld members.

Also read: Oman Air 787 Business Studio business class review

David Flynn travelled to Muscat as a guest of Oman Air and Qantas.