I Flew the Gulf Airline Nobody Talks About

Everyone knows Emirates and Qatar. Oman Air sits between them on the map and gets a fraction of the attention, even though it flies the same kind of aircraft to a lot of the same places. I wanted to know what you get from a Gulf airline that isn't trying to be a global brand.

So I booked economy from Muscat to Paris on a Boeing 787-9 that had been in service for about two months. Seven and a half hours, a full flight, and a fare well below what the big two charge on similar routes. The short version is that Oman Air spends its money on the things you sit in and eat, and not much on anything else.

Getting Out of Muscat

Online check-in refused to work for me, and it only went through after I called Oman Air and had them strip the extras off my booking. That made me expect a slow morning at the airport, and the opposite happened. I was at the counter for about three seconds with nobody ahead of me, though the whole terminal was quiet enough that I doubt I needed a special line to manage it.

Muscat's airport deserves a mention of its own. There's a sort of nature theme running through the building that I haven't seen anywhere else in the Gulf, and the whole place is calmer than Doha or Dubai will ever be. It's less lavish than either of them and a bit tighter on space, but I would take the calm over the marble.

Things fell apart at the gate. Twenty minutes before boarding was supposed to start, the departure screens still hadn't assigned one, which is unusual anywhere. I wandered over to a gate at random and it turned out to be mine, something I only worked out when an agent stepped outside and shouted for the Paris flight to line up.

Illustrated for Contrail

Oman Air Boeing 787-9 · A4O-SJ

Drawn by Caleb St. John · Caleb's Aviation

Every Contrail review carries an original drawing of the aircraft flown, made for us by Caleb St. John, who draws aircraft to raise awareness for young people in aviation living with health conditions.

No aircraft was waiting there either. Ours landed sixteen minutes after boarding should have begun, and it still had to unload the previous passengers and get cleaned before we could get on. Nobody announced any of this, and no gate agents appeared until well past our scheduled departure time. A single announcement explaining the delay would have made the whole wait feel completely different.

The Seat

Our cabin welcome was fine, with a flight attendant at the door pointing people toward the correct aisle. Every window shade was already dimmed as we boarded, which made the cabin feel like a room somebody had closed up for the night.

My seat genuinely surprised me. The base is soft rather than the thin, firm pad most airlines put in long-haul economy. I never got sore across seven and a half hours, which almost never happens to me in the back of a plane. I also love that Oman Air commits to its green. So many cabins are gray now that an airline using its own color counts for something.

Legroom is where the seat gives ground. It's tight to begin with, and the whole seat pan slides forward when you recline rather than the back simply tilting, so you give up knee room to get the angle. That design is better for whoever is sitting behind you than it is for you.

Everything else at the seat is plain. There's a USB-A port for charging but no power outlet that I could find, and there are reading lights overhead but no personal air vents, which I missed later on. A two-part tray table is handy when you only want half of it out, though mine wasn't clean when I sat down. A coat hook hides along the side of the seat where you would never spot it, and that's about the extent of the storage.

Screens and Wi-Fi

My screen was quick to respond when it worked, and I appreciated that the shows on it ran as full seasons in order rather than a random scattering of episodes. These screens also have a privacy filter fitted, so your neighbor's movie isn't glowing away in the corner of your eye.

It did quit twice on me. About an hour in the picture started pulsing blue until I opened the menu and it settled down, and then it went dark completely for a stretch in the second half of the flight before coming back on its own. The Wi-Fi never connected at all, and nothing in the cabin or on the screen explained how it was supposed to work.

Amenities are thin beyond that. You get a pillow, a blanket and a pair of cheap earbuds, with no amenity kit and no hot towel at any point. Download something to watch before you fly and you won't miss any of it.

The Food

Food came about an hour and a half after takeoff, with a choice of chicken and rice or vegetable pasta. My tray had a plastic cup of water included, which is a small thing I wish more airlines copied.

My chicken came buried underneath the rice, so digging it out sent rice across the whole tray, and it was tough by the time I got to it. The flavor was great though, and the portion beat most economy meals I've had this year. Dessert was a solid chocolate cake, and the crew came round with coffee and tea afterward. There was also a pool of water sitting on my tray that hadn't come from the cup, and I still have no idea where it came from.

That pre-landing snack was the low point of the flight. It was a cold bread roll filled with vegetables I couldn't identify, with no alternative offered, alongside a chocolate cookie hard enough to worry a dentist. Looking around the cabin, most people left both of them alone.

The Crew

Service took a long time to get going. A full hour into the flight nobody had come through the cabin at all, and the first drink run started later still. Nobody came round with water between services either, though there was some in the galley if you were willing to get up and ask.

Once the crew were working the aisles, they were good. They didn't smile much, but they were professional in a way that reads as proper training rather than coldness, calling passengers sir and kneeling down beside the seat to talk at eye level. Later in the flight they came through handing out bags of chili-flavored potato sticks, which felt like the most Omani moment of the whole trip.

A few other things stood out along the way. Air in the cabin ran stuffy for most of the flight, which the lack of individual vents didn't help. Lavatories were basic and not especially clean when I went midway through, and our landing in Paris was one of the firmest I've taken in a while.

Worth Booking?

I would if the fare is lower than other higher end carriers. You get a comfortable seat, a good main meal and a crew that knows what it's doing, on an aircraft barely out of the factory. What you don't get is much of anything beyond that, and Oman Air seems fairly honest about which end of the market it's competing in.

If you're booking this route, load your phone with something to watch before you go, and pick a seat toward the front of the cabin if you want to be off the aircraft quickly. I also wouldn't plan anything tight at the other end, given how the boarding went in Muscat.