KUWAIT: His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah chairs a Cabinet meeting yesterday. - KUNA photos

By B Izzak

KUWAIT: A top official at the Kuwait Civil Aviation Authority said yesterday that a plan to implement the resumption of direct commercial flights with India, Egypt and four other nations will be announced "within a few days". Head of Operations at Civil Aviation Mansour Al-Hashemi told Kuwait TV yesterday in a brief statement that the plan will include operations of all airlines to implement a decision by the council of ministers earlier this week.

The Cabinet has announced that direct commercial flights will be resumed with India, Egypt, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal but it did not fix a definitive date for the resumption which comes after months of suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Civil Aviation on Tuesday issued a statement announcing the resumption of the flights giving the impression that the resumption was immediate. The statement however did not carry any date.

HH the Premier speaks with officials during a tour of the proposed investment sites along the Jaber Causeway yesterday.

Later, the Authority denied that the resumption was immediate and insisted they had no certain date yet. Hashemi however later said the date will be announced within days. The six nations together have some 70 percent of the 3.3 million expat population in Kuwait which means that the resumption could lead to an influx of expats into the country. In preparation for their return, the Civil Aviation had asked the Cabinet to raise the number of daily arrivals at Kuwait Airport which currently stands at 7,500 passengers.

In the meantime, the Council of Ministers yesterday discussed a number of economic projects that had been in the pipeline for several years and asked the concerned ministries and authorities to speed up execution. The projects include the establishment of a new international fairs ground project in Subbiya, three economic zones starting with Abdali economic zone and renewable energy projects.