The Tajoura seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant had to be operated cyclically because the conveyance works from the plant to the town were not completed at the time of the plant's start-up. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the plants performance characteristics through analysis of data collected during its first year of cyclic operation. Although it was difficult to assess the plant performance relative to similar continuous flow plants, it was clearly demonstrated that the TSWRO plant performed satisfactorily in terms of its design objectives. Normalized product flows were better than the design ones and permeate concentrations were well below the WHO drinking water standards. Moreover, variations in performance indicators were quite similar to non-cyclic "normal" systems indicating that membranes were not sensitive to cyclic fatiguing effects. Chemicals and power costs were also not impacted notably by the cyclic mode of operation as they were by design shortcomings. Membrane replacement was warranted after over 4 years of cyclic operation. As expected, the frequency of membrane preservation operations and of repairs were higher than "normal" operating conditions. Unit product costs were high as a result of the low availability of 20%. The results can be applied to similar situations or for the prediction or optimization of design and operation of reverse osmosis desalination plants under cyclic operational conditions.