KUWAIT: KAC Chairman Ali Al-Dakhan speaks during a press conference yesterday. – Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

By Nawara Fattahova

KUWAIT: Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) announced positive financial results this year. "Great efforts by the management resulted in achieving profits of KD 5 million in September 2021, while losses of KD 3 million were expected. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, KAC registered losses of KD 10 million in September 2019. Now we are expecting that results in October 2021 will be positive as well, which means that we are on the right path to reach our goals," KAC Chairman Ali Al-Dakhan said during a press conference yesterday, which was also attended by CEO Ma'an Razouqi and other directors.

"We are working on reaching the budget breakeven point, and to achieve this goal, we are working on the acquisition of a larger share of passengers by upgrading our services and focusing more on passenger comfort. This includes all our services at T4 terminal - from when they enter the terminal until boarding their flights," he added.

"We know the requirements of our passengers and what difficulties they face during their trip. Passengers have a full right to demand excellent services, and we are obliged to provide it at a top level. We work hard to make their journey on KAC a pleasant and comfortable one. For this reason, KAC has formed a special 'customer service committee', which seeks to develop better services to meet the expectations of our passengers. We have also set up special numbers for customers to communicate through our social media channels," stated Dakhan.

Fleet renewal

Renewing the KAC fleet is a priority. "We are currently working with Airbus on modifying some of our aircraft booked in 2014. This will allow KAC to modify its operational and marketing plans that suit our future needs. KAC will now have a new fleet that will help the national carrier to attain growth and profitability. We hope that Airbus will meet our demands, especially since we are doing business with them since the early 1980s," he said.

The aviation industry has faced many difficulties due to the coronavirus pandemic, especially the tourism sector. "All airlines were affected and KAC was one of them. A new board of directors was appointed during the pandemic, and in the first year, we faced many obstacles. The most significant was the operational challenges during the coronavirus pandemic and finding new ways to improve and develop KAC's performance to bring it back to its peak," Dakhan explained.

KAC is one of the few airlines in the world that didn't receive any financial support during the coronavirus pandemic. "The company faced many obstacles, including suspending commercial flights for many months before resuming operations gradually at 30 percent capacity," he noted. This led to cutting a number of flights, which led to a hike in fares to cover the cost of flights. "Passengers complained about the hike, which lasted till this month, when the airport began to function at full capacity after the efforts and cooperation of officials from the Directorate General for Civil Aviation," stressed Dakhan.

"The operations and support sectors were also affected by the retirement of many experienced staff, who benefited from privatization law no. 6/2008. So we had to set up a new structure that suited our new size. This needed huge efforts from the new board of directors to set new principles for administrative, operational and technical works," he concluded.