Great new Oman Air Lounge in new Muscat Terminal for an end-to-end luxurious experience

Oman Air‘s lounge at the new Muscat Airport terminal is large, beautiful and a game changer. While I previously enjoyed my Oman Air Business Class on-board experience, the Muscat airport and lounge experience were poor and a blemish on traveling in Business Class. The new lounge is a huge improvement and contributes to a great end-to-end business class experience.

The Oman Air Lounge at Muscat airport is open to First and Business Class passengers traveling on Oman Air. You are welcomed by friendly staff behind a shiny gold desk in front of a lit landscape of mountains.

The lounge is massive and stretches over almost 3,000 sqm on two levels. There are separate areas for First and Business Class and I had access to Business Class on my trip. The lounge is designed to accommodate future growth and the second level was not open during my visit. Still there was plenty of space and it was no problem to find seats to eat, lounge or at the bar, offering you the luxury of finding just the right place for what you want.

The walls are held in white, with light colored art work, floors are in white marble and there are a lot of gold accents, with intricate golden dividers or ceiling decors. Plants add a warm touch to the lounge. There are a number of seating areas, with padded leather chairs and coffee tables.

There is also a bar facing the airfield, so you can enjoy a drink while watching the planes coming and going! Despite Oman being a muslim country, the bar was open in the early morning, serving alcoholic drinks – too early for me!

You can choose from two separate buffet areas with restaurant style seating. I visited the lounge in early morning and there was a wide selection of breakfast foods set out.

There were fruits, pastries as well as a number of cold and warm snacks, certainly enough for a full meal. You could order coffee drinks from a bar, including very good espresso and capucchinos. I had a meal just before arriving (and was expecting another one on my next flight), so I just tried a few snacks – and they were of good quality.
At the very end of the lounge are the bathrooms and showers. They are held in – wait – white with lots of gold. The bathrooms were clean and in very good condition. The shower rooms reminded me of the old lounge and were a little disappointing. They are not the full bathroom suites with sink, toilet and shower, but just a small shower stall next to the toilets. There is little room for your luggage and the whole room was flooding from the shower, making it rather akward. If you want to brush your teeth or shave, you’ll have to use the public sinks by the toilets. There are no towels in the shower suite, but staff was very friendly and eventually found one for me. This is not quite the luxury experience the rest of the lounge offers.
Insider Tip: The shower to the very left of the area is a little bigger, probably designed for handicap access, and might work a little better.

Bottomline: The Oman Air Lounge Muscat is a great improvement and offers a luxurious experience for a great end-to-end business class experience. The plentyful gold is not my personal favorite, but it certainly looks upscale. There is lots of space, plenty of food and drink as well as friendly service and  you can get an ok shower. While it lacks the entertainment options of the Turkish Air Lounge Istanbul, it is better than most lounges and fare ahead of most US or European carriers. If you plan a trip with Oman Air, you can look forward to one of the nicest lounges in the industry!