Oman Air is now a partner of Air Canada Aeroplan. You can include Oman Air flights in Aeroplan awards, alongside other partner flights – even Star Alliance flights, or with partners like Etihad. That’s cool and even a little bit surprising since Oman Air announced their interest in joining oneworld two months ago.

Oman Air was founded in 1993 using a Boeing 737-300 and crew from Ansett Australiato fly from its hub in Muscat. The airline was unsuccessful as a regional carrier and in 2007 the government injected cash and increased its ownership stake fro one-third to 80%.

Like the Abu Dhabi government, Oman split from Gulf Air and launched its own services to Europe (London) and Southeast Asia (Bangkok). The government grew its stake in the airline over the next three years to 99.8%.

Oman Air flies to destinations beyond the Mideast such as Bangkok, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur; around 10 destinations in Europe and 17 destinations in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh as well as flights to Northern Africa, within the Gulf region and four destinations inside Oman.

Before the pandemic the airline planned to add 60 destinations and 70 aircraft by 2022. It still plans to grow from 34 to 44 destinations next year.

Despite following Islamic dietary laws with its meals, the carrier does serve alcohol on flights beyond the Mideast (although not on routes to countries where alcohol is prohibited, nor during Ramadan).

The carrier operates both Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 as well as Airbus A330-200 and -300 long haul aircraft, Its short haul routes are serviced by Boeing 737-800, 737-900, and 737 MAX 8 planes.

They offer flat beds in long haul business class and have a first class cabin on Airbus A330-300 and Boeing 787-9 aircraft.

Credit: Oman Air

I’d find myself most likely to use Oman Air when visiting two Alila Hotels (Hyatt) properties: Alila Jabal Akhdar and Alila Hinu Bay that I’ve had my eye on.

With a new U.S. credit card and transfers from Amex, Chase, Capital One and Bilt it’s possible for U.S. frequent flyers to access a ton of Aeroplan points.