The two largest airlines in the Sultanate of Oman are changing chief executives within weeks of each other. On 20 August 2026, Oman Air announced that chief executive Con Korfiatis will step aside from the top role on 1 September 2026. Days earlier, low-cost carrier SalamAir had confirmed its own leadership transition.
Korfiatis will be succeeded by Nasser Al Sharji, who until now served as acting head of Oman Airports Management β the government-owned company that operates the country's civilian airports β as well as chief executive of ground handler Transom Handling. Korfiatis is not leaving the airline outright: he will remain attached to Oman Air as an advisor to the chief executive and will help manage the handover.
A Turnaround Cut Short
The departure has come as something of a surprise. The Australian executive took the top job at Oman Air in May 2024 with a clear brief: restructure the airline and return it to profitability. Shortly after his appointment he launched a series of initiatives aimed at rationalising the fleet and network and revamping the carrier's product.
By the numbers, that plan was working. Oman Air remains unprofitable, but the direction of travel improved materially under his tenure. Net losses roughly halved between 2023 and 2025, falling from 103 million Omani rials β about US$268 million β to 52.2 million rials, or roughly US$135.8 million. Passenger numbers rose 8 percent in 2025 over the previous year, while cost per available seat kilometre fell 6 percent over the same period.
Most notably, 2025 delivered Oman Air's first positive EBITDA in fifteen years, at 3.2 million rials or around US$8.3 million. In June 2025, Korfiatis also oversaw the airline's accession to the oneworld alliance, a milestone the carrier had pursued for years and one that materially widens its distribution reach without requiring it to add capacity of its own.
SalamAir Changes Hands Too
The timing is what makes this unusual. SalamAir, the Sultanate's second-largest airline and its principal low-cost operator, announced almost simultaneously that Adrian Hamilton-Manns will be replaced as chief executive by Yaqoob bin Saif bin Hamoud Al Kiyumi, effective 1 October 2026.
In SalamAir's case the transition was less abrupt. The departure of the New Zealand executive had been signalled several months in advance, giving the carrier a longer runway to prepare. Still, the practical effect is that within a five-week window both of Oman's major airlines will be under new leadership.
What It Means For Oman's Aviation Market
Two simultaneous leadership changes at the top of a single national market are rare, and they arrive at a point where Oman's aviation strategy is still being defined. Oman Air has spent the past two years deliberately shrinking to fit β trimming its fleet and network in pursuit of sustainable economics rather than chasing the scale of its much larger Gulf neighbours. SalamAir, by contrast, has been expanding its point-to-point network.
Al Sharji arrives at Oman Air from the infrastructure side of the business rather than from airline operations, having run both the airports company and a ground handler. That background is a notable departure from the commercial-airline profile of his predecessor, and it hands the flag carrier a chief executive with unusually deep familiarity with the cost base on the ground. Whether the restructuring programme continues on its current trajectory is the question the market will be watching through the remainder of 2026.
Sources: AeroTime. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Daniel Okafor.
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