Oman Air to retire B737-900ERs by 2025

Dhaka: As the renewal process of its narrow body fleet progresses, national carrier Oman Air will retire all five of its Boeing 737-900ERs between 2024 and the fourth quarter of 2025.

These five aircraft were primarily used for the airline's short- and medium-haul flight operations but will soon be replaced by brand-new Boeing 737 MAXs.

The five Boeing 737-900ERs up for eventual retirement are: A4O-BI, aged 8.5 years, A4O-BK, aged 8.0 years, A4O-BT, aged 7.5 years, A4O-BY, aged 8.1 years, and A4O-BZ, aged 7.9 years.

They were from a firm order by Oman Air to Boeing made nearly a decade ago on June 19, 2013. The order would add onto Oman Air's then-order for six Boeing 737-800s, and also marked the first order for a Boeing 737-900ER from a Gulf carrier, and was valued at USD 473 million at list prices. The first of the five was delivered in November 2014, with the remainder delivered the following year.

Configured with two classes for a total of 183 passengers, the oneworld alliance member uses these five Boeing narrowbodies for flight services between Muscat International Airport and Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport, and Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport, to name a few.

With the eventual retirement of the Boeing 737-900ERs, Oman Air will be left with a narrowbody fleet consisting of 14 Boeing 737-800s and 13 Boeing 737 MAX 8s - the 13th of which was just recently delivered to the airline last month, as part of a sale and leaseback transaction with aircraft lessor CDB Aviation.

The Gulf carrier is patiently awaiting the arrival of more, as replacing the retired aircraft will be five additional Boeing 737 MAX 8s as part of a firm order with Boeing. However, the delivery timeline for the additional new-generational narrowbodies is yet to be determined.