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Kuwait Airways will capitalize on growing shipping demand by acquiring committed freighters for its fleet.
Speaking to FlightGlobal at the Arab Air Transport Organization convention in Abu Dhabi, Chief Executive Maen Razouqi said he believes the airline can handle up to five freighters.
“We don’t have a full freighter,” he says. We would take them because the market is there. “
The airline is “up for discussion” about the imaginable advent of cargo planes.
Kuwait Airways is modernizing its fleet with Airbus A330-900s, after switching to the A330-800 aircraft.
Razouqi says the airline is building a 60:40 widebody fuselage operation, with Airbus aircraft complementing the Gulf airline’s Boeing 777-300ERs on long-haul routes.
But the airline also plans to deploy Airbus A321LR long-haul as part of an overhaul of its single-aisle fleet, which will come with six A321neos and nine A320neos.
Kuwait Airways will in particular expand its network with increased capacity, adding 10 new destinations in the winter schedule and another 15 in the summer of next year.
This will constitute a 50 percent expansion into the network, Razouqi says.
While the airline already has a large number of pilots in training, it plans to increase its cabin crew by 50% this year, adding around 500, of which three hundred have already been hired.
“During the pandemic, it’s the maximum resource affected,” says Razouqi.
The fleet upgrade responds to Razouqi’s ambition to complete the flagship transformation into the most effective airline.
Razouqi, who was appointed to the most sensible post a year ago, said he had embarked on a “three-year journey” to “acquire the highest price for our shareholders and the State of Kuwait. “
The airline worked under an inefficient structure, and the need for an overhaul was urgent when the government opened Kuwait’s domestic market to new airlines, budget operator Jazeera Airways added.
Kuwait Airways has strived to be lighter, says Razouqi, with a 20% cut in managing and exploring outsourcing non-essential work.
He says the airline aims to break even by the end of 2024 and is “confident” in the target: The airline has reduced its losses by 63% this year.
“There is a huge opportunity for execution, if we don’t increase costs,” says Razouqi.
Kuwait Airways’ most recent annual monetary samples show that the flag carrier suffered a net loss of KD 264. 5 million ($870 million) during the 2020 pandemic. The airline’s profit fell 64% for the year, to just under KD 138 million. Kuwait Airways was already unsuccessful before the crisis, achieving a network in 2019Array.
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