SalamAir will establish the first airline base at Salalah, positioning an aircraft in Dhofar and launching direct international services to Jeddah, Chattogram and Calicut from the end of October. The move marks a significant expansion of the low-cost carrier’s operations beyond its main Muscat hub. Bookings for the three routes opened on 26 August, with services scheduled to begin as part of SalamAir’s winter 2026 programme. The base is designed to give travellers in southern Oman more direct options without requiring connections through Muscat, while helping Salalah develop a broader year-round aviation market.
The selection of Jeddah, Chattogram and Calicut reflects three distinct sources of demand. Jeddah provides access to a major Saudi commercial and religious travel centre, while Chattogram strengthens links with Bangladesh. Calicut, officially Kozhikode, serves one of the Gulf’s most established South Asian travel corridors and a large expatriate market with longstanding connections to Oman.
SalamAir will operate the Salalah-based services with aircraft from its Airbus A320neo and A321neo fleet. The carrier currently has 18 aircraft, giving it additional capacity to expand routes while retaining flexibility across its network. Its 18th aircraft, an A320neo delivered in July, was named “Salalah” and entered commercial operation with a Muscat-Salalah flight.
Chief executive Adrian Hamilton-Manns said the decision converts the airline’s longstanding commitment to Dhofar into a permanent operational presence. Positioning an aircraft at Salalah is expected to increase travel choices for residents and strengthen the city’s ability to attract visitors outside the Khareef tourism season.
The decision follows a sharp expansion of SalamAir capacity between Muscat and Salalah during this year’s Khareef period. At the height of demand, the airline operated as many as 15 flights a day on the domestic route and added thousands of seats. Special one-way fares for Omani nationals started at OMR9.99 as the carrier sought to accommodate heavy seasonal traffic.
Salalah International Airport already has scheduled links with Muscat and major Gulf hubs including Dubai, Doha and Sharjah, alongside international and seasonal services. Airport schedules in August showed Oman Air and SalamAir as the largest operators on the Muscat route, with other carriers providing connections to regional and European destinations.
Turning Salalah into an aircraft base changes the nature of SalamAir’s presence at the airport. Rather than relying primarily on flights arriving from another operating centre, a based aircraft can start and finish its rotations in Salalah. That can improve scheduling flexibility, permit earlier departures and later arrivals, and make additional point-to-point routes commercially possible if passenger demand develops.
The airline has already experimented with expanding Salalah’s direct network. During the 2026 summer season it introduced seasonal services to Dammam and Doha, alongside domestic services linking Salalah with northern Oman. Those operations provided a test of demand for routes that bypass Muscat and connect Dhofar directly with neighbouring markets.
SalamAir is also planning charter flights from Salalah to Astana and Almaty during the winter season. The Kazakhstan links are aimed largely at inbound tourism and could help Dhofar diversify beyond the Gulf and South Asian markets that account for much of its scheduled international traffic.
The strategy fits Salalah’s effort to reduce its dependence on the annual Khareef season, when the monsoon transforms Dhofar’s landscape and draws large visitor numbers from Oman and neighbouring Gulf states. Aviation planners and tourism operators have increasingly sought to develop winter tourism, cultural travel and international leisure traffic to keep hotels, airports and associated businesses active across more months of the year.
For SalamAir, the Salalah investment comes as the carrier broadens a network that now covers more than 40 destinations across the Middle East, Africa, the subcontinent and Europe. The airline has continued adding routes from Muscat while pursuing underserved markets where lower fares and direct services can stimulate passenger demand.
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