Oman Air Grounds Jets As Supply Chain Crunch Hits Schedules

Oman Air's clarification, published in local outlets and picked up by regional media, confirms that "a limited number" of aircraft have been temporarily grounded because of delayed aircraft availability and parts, which in turn has forced adjustments to "some" planned flights.

In its statement to The National, the airline says it is working closely with manufacturers to return the affected fleet to operation, has already reorganised bookings for impacted guests onto alternative flights, and is treating even minor disruptions as an issue for guest experience. The carrier is not calling this a safety problem, it is presenting it as a capacity and parts issue.

Crucially, Oman Air has not published a route list or a clear frequency chart. Public statements only say that "some of our planned flights" are being adjusted. That leaves travelers with a scattered pattern of disruptions that may affect regional hops into the Gulf, South Asia, or East Africa, as well as selected long haul services into Europe or Southeast Asia, depending on which aircraft are in heavy maintenance or awaiting engines on a given day.

The airline has already been in the middle of a restructuring and fleet simplification program, including plans to phase out older Airbus A330s and concentrate long haul work onto Boeing 787 9s and regional flying onto Boeing 737 variants. That shift reduces type complexity, but it also means there are fewer spare airframes when something is grounded.

How global supply chain strain is squeezing Middle East fleets

What is happening at Oman Air is one local flashpoint of a global problem.

IATA's recent supply chain study, released in October, found that aircraft deliveries fell to just 1,254 in 2024, roughly 30 percent below pre pandemic peaks, and that the global commercial aircraft backlog has ballooned to more than 17,000 jets. The same report estimates that slow production, delayed parts, and engine constraints will add more than 11 billion dollars to airline costs in 2025, as carriers keep older aircraft flying longer, pay more for maintenance and leased engines, and tie up capital in spare parts stocks.

In a separate speech, IATA's safety chief was blunt, noting that engine issues alone have already grounded "hundreds of aircraft" worldwide, stretching fleets, delaying maintenance, and eroding the buffers that protect operations. That figure covers many different engine families, but the impact is particularly visible on newer geared turbofan powered narrowbodies, where airlines as varied as Wizz Air in Europe and Middle East Airlines in Lebanon have parked portions of their Airbus A321neo fleets awaiting shop slots and replacement parts.

In the wider region, Turkish Airlines currently has around 45 Airbus narrowbodies grounded and does not expect the Pratt and Whitney related repair backlog to ease before mid 2027, while still trying to grow its network. For smaller carriers like Oman Air, that kind of shared supply chain makes it harder to "jump the queue" for engines or components, because every shop slot and spare part is contested.

The result is an industry where many airlines are already operating with some percentage of their fleet on the ground, scheduled deliveries arriving late, and thin reserves of spare lift. Once a carrier like Oman Air has a few aircraft taken out of service, there is less slack to cover routine maintenance, weather, or air traffic disruptions, which is why relatively modest grounding numbers still produce visible schedule adjustments.

What this means if you are booked on Oman Air

Expect rolling, flight by flight changes rather than one big cut

Because Oman Air has not published a timetable of cuts, the most likely pattern for travelers is a series of rolling adjustments. That can include: a departure moved by a few hours, a day of week being thinned out on a route, or a long haul aircraft swap that removes a premium cabin or changes seat layouts.

Oman Air's public line is that affected guests are being automatically moved to alternative flights as a "standard procedure," which matches typical airline practice for schedule changes and cancellations under internal rules and Oman's passenger rights regime. However, automatic rebooking does not guarantee that the new itinerary preserves tight onward connections or preferred seating, especially in peak periods.

How to monitor and stay ahead of disruptions

For trips over the next one to two months, this is the baseline checklist that makes sense now:

• Use Oman Air's "Manage Booking" and "Flight Status" tools plus your travel agency or online booking account to check for retimings at least once a week, then daily in the three days before departure.
• Watch for soft signals like new e tickets being issued, seat assignments disappearing, or aircraft types changing on your reservation, all of which can precede a more explicit schedule change email.
• If you are building your own connection through Muscat, avoid minimum connection times that leave less than two and a half to three hours between flights, especially when one leg is long haul overnight and the other is a short regional hop.

Rebooking, refunds, and where law helps

Under Oman Air's own policies, unused tickets can generally be cancelled, reissued, or refunded with fees depending on the fare rules and the channel where you bought the ticket, and the airline directs customers to contact the point of purchase or its call centre for involuntary changes or refund processing.

On top of airline rules, local regulations also matter. Oman's civil aviation authority has a passenger rights framework that requires airlines to provide re routing, refunds, and "right to care" assistance in some disruption scenarios, although groundings linked to global supply chain problems may reduce eligibility for cash compensation.

If your flight departs the European Union or the United Kingdom, EC261 and UK261 can add another layer. They generally give travelers on departing flights from those jurisdictions a right to rerouting or refund, plus fixed compensation when cancellations or long delays are within the airline's control and notified less than fourteen days in advance. Engine manufacturing defects and parts shortages are often treated as "extraordinary circumstances" in court cases, which means compensation is not guaranteed, but care duties like meals and hotels still tend to apply when you are stranded overnight.

The practical advice is conservative. Assume you can expect rebooking and basic care, but do not rely on compensation unless and until a specialised claim service or lawyer confirms you qualify under local law.

Alliance options, codeshares, and why capacity still bites

Oman Air's move into the oneworld alliance gives some passengers new options, because ticketing carriers or interline partners might be able to move disrupted travelers to other alliance airlines in cases where there is space on comparable flights.

However, the same supply chain pinch that hit Oman Air is also constraining many of its peers, so partner airlines will not always have empty seats waiting for displaced guests. In practice, alliance rebooking will help most on trunk routes with multiple daily frequencies, while thinner city pairs and peak holiday departures remain structurally vulnerable.

Background: why this story matters beyond Oman

The Oman Air grounding is a fairly clean illustration of a trend IATA has been warning about for more than a year. Airlines worldwide are running closer to the edge because the aircraft and engine supply chain has not caught up with demand. There are more than 17,000 jets in the backlog, hundreds of aircraft out of service for engine work, and multiyear gaps between planned and actual delivery dates, with an estimated cost hit of at least 11 billion dollars in 2025 alone.

For travelers, that translates into more frequent "aircraft unavailable" days, thinner schedules, and fewer easy rebooking options when something breaks. Oman Air's current situation shows how even a limited grounding can ripple through a hub that already runs close to capacity during peak banks, and it will not be the last Middle Eastern carrier to face that pressure.

Final thoughts

If you are flying Oman Air soon, act as if the schedule is provisional. Confirm every sector, build extra buffer into any do it yourself connections, keep your contact details updated so the airline can reach you, and think ahead about alternative routings.

This is not a reason to avoid Muscat or Oman Air altogether, but it is a reminder that global supply chain math is now a direct part of your trip planning. Travelers who treat their itineraries as dynamic and who understand their rights will navigate this squeeze with far fewer unpleasant surprises.

Sources

• Oman Air working to restore temporary flight disruptions
• Oman Air grounds some aircraft and adjusts flight schedules amid supply chain delays
• Oman Air adjusts flight schedules as supply chain delays sideline part of its fleet
• Oman Air cites global supply chain delays as reason for temporary flight disruptions
• Supply Chain Challenges Could Cost Airlines More than $11 Billion in 2025
• WSOC 2025 Speech, Mark Searle, IATA Global Director Safety
• MEA clarifies engine crisis and leased planes
• Turkish Airlines sees Pratt engine woes lasting to mid 2027