Oman Air’s new 787 business class

Oman Air will roll out all-new business class on its next wave of Boeing 787 deliveries, and travellers can expect private, doored suites in a conventional 1-2-1 layout.

The Gulf airline’s current business class follows a 2-2-2 configuration using the unique Apex Suite design, which combines a staggered seating layout with a pathway so that window passengers enjoy direct aisle access rather than having to squeeze past their seatmates.

Oman Air currently has ten Boeing 787s, with “two more coming in the new year” – one of which is expected to be painted in a special Oneworld livery to celebrate the Gulf carrier’s entry into the Oneworld alliance on June 30, 2025.

These will be the last new Dreamliners with Oman Air’s 2-2-2 business class, before the arrival of “six more Dreamliners from 2027 onwards,” Oman Air CEO Con Korfiatis tells Executive Traveller.

“By then, we’ll be ready for more growth in the widebody capacity, although we also have some of our first deliveries of 787s starting to come off lease at that time.”

Korfiatis tells Executive Traveller the airline’s current business class cabin suffers from an inefficient layout, due to the additional floorspace needed to provide direct aisle access for the window seats.

Oman Air's c current 787 business class will be replaced by a modern 1-2-1 suites design.

“Our desire is to take this opportunity to invest,” adds Oman Air’s Chief Commercial Officer Mick Rutter, which is business class means “better utilisation of the space that we have on board (and) improving the modernity of the product.”

“We have the opportunity to put products out there similar to Qatar and Emirates in terms of strong wonderful product values, but also better overall economics for the business.”

Those six Boeing 787s will also see Oman Air return to a standard two-class layout, given the airline has “retired” first class due to low demand and now sells the eight high-walled suites as an upgraded business class product called the Business Studio.

Oman Air's former first class is now sold as Business Studio class.

Review:Oman Air 787 Business Studio business class

However, Korfiatis says there are no plans to remove these former first class suites from the front of the current Dreamliners and replace them with two more rows of business class.

“We plan to keep it there simply because it’s not economic to reconfigure the aircraft.”

“That’s why we’ve invested in creating a different sort of concept” in the Business Studio, “because it’s not going to go away.”

“We found a way to make it work commercially” by repositioning the suites as a ‘business plus’ product, Korfiatis recounts.

“Not so much so that we’d want to reconfigure other aircraft into that, but enough that we can justify its existence until it naturally exits the fleet, which is a number of years away.”

Also read: Oman Air to join Oneworld on June 30, 2025

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