Oman Air may become state-owned

[CSilvera]

Oman Air may become state-owned
by Dylan Bowman and Reuters on Sunday, 27 May 2007
Oman's government will offer to buy out the other shareholders of Oman Aviation Services (OAS) to turn the airline operator into a state-owned firm, a director of Oman Aviation said.

In February the government raised its stake in Oman Aviation, the parent company of Oman Air, to 82% from 34% by investing 56.77 million rials ($146.5 million) through a private placement.

The shareholders will meet to discuss the offer on May 29, Oman Aviation director Hussain Ali al-Raisi told Reuters.

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13169:oman-air-may-become-state-owned&Itemid=0

[fractional]

Wholly owned, you mean...:rolleyes:
WY is already state owned. "The Omani government currently owns some 83% stake in the carrier".:)
It's a matter of time. This way, they'll be able to practice "competitive" fares just like their counterparts further West of MCT. Why not? This is fair play"...:cool:

[tournesol]

isn't the trend around the wolrd to privatise ?

[fractional]

isn't the trend around the wolrd to privatise ?
:=Not here. At least, not WY. WY, EY, EK, GF, QR, KU and SV. These cannot go private:rolleyes: for a long while.
Let's have EK competing in AUH and similarly EY in DXB:ugh: first before a real competition sets in the area :mad:.

[REACH-69]

Wish Oman Air all the best........Mamboooooooooooos:ok:

[fractional]

http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Aviation/10129521.html
This is the expected consequence of rushing... If GF stop flying out to non-Gulf destinations so soon as announced from MCT, competitors will gain, but will travellers gain with it? I doubt. Another "step in the wrong direction".
The same happened recently in AUH with GF's departure last year. Over 1 year later, and the traffic growth has been very small in passenger numbers in comparison with the Gulf main competitors. The opposite happened in cargo figures.
MCT has been having recently 2 digit growth in passenger and cargo numbers (something like 25% and 20% respectively). Obviously, it isn't going to continue...

[picu]

they'll be able to practice "competitive" fares just like their counterparts further West of MCT. Why not?

Are you trying to say that EK ticket prices are subsidised by the goverment???? Don't think so. I'm sure we do get some concessions and that we're (almost) tax free but Dubai gets a huge dollop of cash from our profits every year.
As for ticket prices, EK's fares are anything but cheap.