Airlines bid for flights to Egypt, India

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 1: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) recently received the revised operating requests from the national airlines — Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) and Jazeera Airways — in preparation for the start of operating commercial flights to Egypt, India and some Asian countries, which the Cabinet recently approved.

The sources stated that with the end of summer vacation and start of the school year next four weeks will witness immense pressure on the airport, returning of Kuwaiti citizens will lead to significant increase in ticket prices, many will face booking flight tickets. With increasing demand the Cabinet has two options: either raise the operational capacity of arrivals to 10,000 per day or exclude Kuwaitis from specified capacity, reports Al Rai. Expats arriving from India are set to 5,528 per week which is 90 per day through Kuwait national carriers and Air India / Indian Airlines. Passengers from Egypt are set at 1,562 daily (10,934 weekly) from which 457 for Kuwait Airways and 324 for Jazeera Airways and balance by Egyptian Airlines.

Director Directorate General of Civil Aviation Yousef Al-Fawzan revealed seat capacities will be increased in the near future after the health assessment of Kuwait International Airport. Departing flights capacity does not have any restrictions.

Earlier sources disclosed KAC submitted a request to operate flights to the Arab Republic of Egypt as follows: two flights per day to Cairo International Airport and three flights per week to Burj Al Arab Airport in Alexandria; in addition to India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Sources added Jazeera Airways submitted a request to operate flights to Cairo Airport with two flights per day, one flight per day to India and one flight per week to Sri Lanka. Sources clarified no national airline has applied to operate flights to Nepal so far; indicating the Air Transport Department in the DGCA will soon contact the civil aviation authorities in Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka regarding the resumption of commercial flights.

Accordingly, DGCA will receive operating requests from the national airlines in these countries; then the green light will be given to resume flights, sources revealed. Sources went on to say: “We expect the whole process to take about one week or 10 days to start operating flights by the end of next week or the week after. This depends on the speed of the response of the civil aviation authorities in the five countries.”