SalamAir Signs With Amadeus: Oman's Budget Airline Goes Dual-GDS

Oman's low-cost carrier SalamAir has signed a distribution agreement with travel technology company Amadeus. Travel sellers connected to the Amadeus Travel Platform will be able to find and sell SalamAir's fares and services. The deal was announced on 20 October 2026 in an official Amadeus press release. It follows SalamAir's move onto Sabre's global distribution system in 2025, so the Muscat-based airline will now be listed in two of the large booking networks that travel agencies around the world rely on.

📌 Key Takeaways

• SalamAir signed a distribution agreement with Amadeus that opens its fares and services to travel sellers on the Amadeus Travel Platform, Amadeus announced on 20 October 2026.
• The airline already went live on Sabre's GDS in August 2025, as Aviation & Defence Universe reported. Adding Amadeus means it now has agreements with both of these major distribution networks.
• Neither company has disclosed a go-live date, which markets come first, the commercial terms, or the technical connection model.
• The deal comes less than three weeks after Air Arabia signed a group-level agreement with Amadeus, a sign that Gulf budget carriers are moving their sales onto the same agency systems that full-service airlines use.

✈️ What Was Announced

The Amadeus release says the agreement will give SalamAir more visibility and reach in more markets through Amadeus's network of travel sellers. Under the deal, sellers connected to the Amadeus Travel Platform gain access to SalamAir's fares and services. The airline expects this to help it reach new customer segments.

The Oman Observer also covered the signing. It called the deal part of SalamAir's strategy to strengthen its international presence, add sales channels and make its flights easier for travellers to book. Gulf Daily News, carrying a TradeArabia report, linked it to the airline's aim of capturing demand across its growing network.

Amadeus framed the deal as part of a wider push into low-cost aviation. "Our growing relationship with SalamAir highlights our commitment to supporting the low-cost carrier segment," said Maher Koubaa, Executive Vice President Travel Unit and Managing Director EMEA at Amadeus, in the release.

🖥️ Why Booking Technology Matters for a Budget Airline

Low-cost airlines have traditionally sold most of their seats directly through their own websites and apps, which keeps distribution costs down. The cost of that approach is reach. Corporate travel managers, online travel agencies and high-street agents in markets far from Muscat search for and book flights through global distribution systems (GDS). If an airline's fares are not in those systems, many of those sellers will not see it.

SalamAir has been closing that gap step by step. When it launched on Sabre's GDS in August 2025, agents using Sabre could book the airline under its OV code and issue tickets on OV960 stock in its active Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) markets, according to Aviation & Defence Universe. The same report said the Sabre connection was live first in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Turkey, with Oman, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh expected to follow.

The Amadeus agreement covers the other large agency network. For a travel agent in Europe or South Asia, SalamAir fares should eventually appear in the same booking tools they already use, without logging into a separate airline portal.

📈 The Network Behind the Deal

The distribution push matches the airline's growth. In 2025, SalamAir operated 22,164 flights, carried more than 3.4 million passengers and served more than 44 destinations, TradeArabia reported when the airline marked nine years of operations in February 2026. The same report listed new 2026 routes to Port Sudan, Damascus, Vienna and Medan.

By late August 2026, SalamAir had 18 Airbus A320neo Family aircraft and was running more than 90 daily flights to more than 40 destinations, with a target of 25 aircraft by 2028, according to Runway Girl Network. That report also covered the airline's new base in Salalah. A carrier with long-haul ambitions such as Vienna needs visibility with agents in source markets it cannot easily reach through its own app.

🌍 A Regional Pattern Among Low-Cost Carriers

SalamAir's deal follows a similar one by its larger UAE rival. On 2 October 2026, Amadeus announced a group-level agreement with Air Arabia. That deal uses a "light ticketing" model: sellers book and manage Air Arabia content through standard GDS workflows, with real-time connections to the airline's systems. Amadeus has not said whether SalamAir will use the same model, so readers should not assume the two set-ups are identical.

The broader point is that Gulf budget airlines increasingly treat the agency channel as a technology integration problem. The question is how to put dynamic fares and paid extras into third-party booking systems without losing the cost advantages of selling direct.

❓ What We Still Do Not Know

• Go-live timing: Neither the Amadeus release nor the Oman Observer report says when agents will be able to book SalamAir through Amadeus.
• Markets: Neither source says which countries come first, or whether the rollout will follow SalamAir's BSP footprint.
• Ancillaries and technical model: The release mentions "fares and services". It does not say how baggage, seats and other extras will be shown, or which connection standard will be used.
• Commercial terms: No financial details were disclosed, Gulf Daily News noted.

These details matter for travel agencies in Oman. Until a go-live is confirmed, agents using Amadeus should keep booking SalamAir through their existing channels.

Booking systems are only one part of how Oman's aviation sector is digitising. We have also looked at Oman Airports' trial of driverless electric vehicles, which shows the same shift happening on the ground side of the industry.

🇴🇲 Why this matters for Oman

Oman Vision 2040 depends on more international visitors, and visitors who book through travel agents, corporate travel desks or online travel sites need to be able to find Omani airlines in those systems. With agreements on both Sabre and Amadeus, SalamAir's fares to Muscat, Salalah and its wider network can be shown alongside other carriers when overseas sellers put trips together.

The deal brings no new technology to Oman itself; the gain is in how widely the airline can sell. Its real impact will depend on how quickly the integration goes live and how fully SalamAir's extras are carried over. Omani tour operators and corporate travel buyers should watch for a confirmed launch date and the first list of markets.