Wednesday, Jun 06, 2007
DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Oman Air Tuesday evening halted all air operations to and from Muscat's Seeb International Airport due to bad weather caused by Cyclone Gonu.
Operations are halted until further notice, the airline said in a statement.
The airline stopped operations due to safety concerns and all Oman Air flights are diverted to airports in Dubai, Doha and Bahrain.
"The last flight left for Dubai at 8.00 p.m. (local time) Tuesday night and after that the airport has been closed for all air operations," Ali Al Busaidi, an Oman Air official told Zawya Dow Jones Wednesday.
"The weather is worsening and we have no information when we will be able to resume flights," he said.
Oman Air has also moved some of its fleet to Salalah Airport in southern Oman to avoid the bad weather.
The cyclone, which is 100 nautical miles southeast of the Omani capital of Muscat, is forecast to head northwest into the Straits of Hormuz.
Strong winds and rain hit Oman's coast early Wednesday causing thousands of residents to flee to higher ground.
Forecasters say the Arabian Peninsula's strongest storm for 60 years is on course for southern Iran and the oil-rich Persian Gulf.
-By Sarmad Khan, Dow Jones Newswires, +9714 364 4965; sarmad.khan@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-06-07 0555GMT
