Kuwait Airways
Kuwait Airways is the flag carrier of Kuwait, with its head office on the grounds of Kuwait International Airport, Al Farwaniyah Governorate. It operates scheduled international services throughout the Middle East, to the Indian subcontinent, Europe, Southeast Asia and North America, from its main base at Kuwait International Airport.
History
The carrier traces its history back to 1953, when Kuwait National Airways was formed by a group of Kuwaiti businessmen; initially, the government took a 50% interest. That year, a five-year management contract was signed with British International Airlines, a BOAC subsidiary in Kuwait that operated charter flights and provided maintenance services. Two Dakotas were bought, and operations started on 16 March 1954. The carrier transported 8,966 passengers in its first year of operations. In July 1955, the name Kuwait Airways was adopted. In May 1958, a new contract for management and operation was signed, directly with BOAC this time. BIA was taken over by Kuwait Airways in April 1959.On 8 August 1962, Kuwait Airways became the first foreign customer to order the Trident when two aircraft of the type were acquired, and an option for a third was taken. The deal was valued at £5.5 million, and also included a Comet 4C. At the same time, the carrier also had a £3 million order in place for three BAC One-Elevens, with an option for a fourth. The airline took delivery of the first Comet of its own in January 1963, but Comet operations had started in the previous year with an aircraft on lease from MEA. In August 1963, a second Comet was ordered. The delivery of this second airframe established an unofficial record in early 1964 when it flew between London and Kuwait, a distance of, at on average. On 1 June 1963, the government increased its participation in the airline to 100%. In March 1964, the carrier added its first European destination to the route network when flights to London were inaugurated using Comet equipment; from that time, services between London and some points in the Middle East, including Abadan, Bahrain, Beirut, Dhahran, Doha and Kuwait, started being operated in a pool agreement between the carrier and BOAC and MEA. A month later, the airline absorbed Trans Arabia Airways.
File:Kuwait Airways Boeing 707-320C 9K-ACK LHR 1978-8-24.png|thumb|A Kuwait Airways Boeing 707-320C on the approach to London Heathrow Airport in 1978. Three aircraft of the type were ordered in November 1967.
In April 1965, the route network had expanded to include Abadan, Baghdad, Bahrain, Beirut, Bombay, Cairo, Damascus, Doha, Frankfurt, Geneva, Jerusalem, Karachi, London, Paris and Tehran. At this time, the fleet comprised two Comet 4Cs, three DC-6Bs, two Twin Pioneers and three Viscount 700s; the carrier had two Trident 1Es and three One-Elevens pending delivery. The first Trident was handed over by the aircraft manufacturer in March 1966, and the second followed in the same year. In the interim, a third aircraft of the type was ordered. On the other hand, the One-Elevens were never delivered: in January 1966, the carrier stated that the simultaneous introduction of both types of aircraft was not possible due to a tightened budget, and postponed their delivery; it was informed late that year that the airline would not take them. Three Boeing 707-320Cs were ordered in November 1967. The carrier made its first profit ever in 1968, with a net income of £910,000.
During 1972, Kuwait Airways' consecutive profitable year, the airline had a net profit of £2.9 million. By May 1973, the fleet had reduced to five Boeing 707-320C aircraft. That year, flights to Colombo were launched. In March 1975, Faisal Saud Al-Fulaij, who employed 1,800, was the corporation's chairman. In a deal worth million, two additional ex-Pan American Boeing 707-320Cs were subsequently purchased that year, with the first one entering the fleet in. The carrier ordered its first Boeing 737 that year, slated for delivery in February 1976. Kuwait Airways became the Boeing 727's worldwide customer in 1979 when it ordered three of these aircraft for delivery in late 1980 and early 1981.
File:Kuwait Airways A310-300 9K-ALA PRG 2004-09-09.png|thumb|left|A Kuwait Airways Airbus A310-300 approaches Prague Ruzyne Airport in 2004
By July 1980, chairmanship was held by Ghassan Al-Nissef, the number of employees had grown to 5,400 and the fleet comprised eight Boeing 707-320Cs, one Boeing 737-200, three Boeing 747-200Bs and one JetStar; three Boeing 727-200s were pending delivery. In mid 1980, six Airbus A310-200s were ordered to replace the Boeing 707s on routes to Asia, Europe and the Middle East, with deliveries starting in 1983; five more A310 aircraft were added to the order late that year.
After India's air market was deregulated in 1992, Kuwait Airways and Gulf Air participated in the formation of Jet Airways, each holding a 20% equity stake, with a total investment estimated at million. Following the enactment of a law that banned the investment of foreign carriers in domestic Indian operators, both airlines had to divest their shareholding in the Indian company. Kuwait Airways' 20% stake in Jet Airways was sold to the chairman Naresh Goyal for million.
File:Kuwait Airways A340-300 9K-ANA CDG 2014-11-02.jpg|thumb|A Kuwait Airways Airbus A340-300 takes off from Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2014. The carrier received the first aircraft of the type in March 1995.
In July 1996, the carrier modified a previous order that included Boeing 747 aircraft, and placed an order worth million for two Boeing 777-200s, with purchase rights for another aircraft of the type. The operation made Kuwait Airways the customer of the type worldwide. The airframer handed over the first Boeing 777-200 in early 1998. In December 1998, a code-share agreement was signed with Trans World Airlines to begin in the spring of 1999.
In October 2007, the new CEO pledged that the airline should be privatised to compete efficiently against other airlines. He says that the airline will encounter difficulty in advancing, especially in fleet renewal, without privatisation.
Flights to Iraq were resumed in November 2013; Kuwait Airways had discontinued services to the country in 1990 following the invasion of Kuwait. After a 17-year hiatus, the carrier resumed flying to Munich in July 2015. Also in July 2015, the airline restarted flights to Istanbul-Atatürk; the city had not been served for three years. Bangalore was added to the carrier network in October 2015.
Airline's relationship with Israeli passengers
Kuwait Airways was accused of discriminating against holders of Israeli passports, for refusing in 2013 and 2014 to sell tickets from New York to London to people holding Israeli passports. In response, Senator Richard Blumenthal, along with five other senators, wrote a letter to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in May 2015 urging him to investigate the allegations. In October 2015, at the conclusion of an investigation, the Department of Transportation issued Kuwait Airways an order to "cease and desist from refusing to transport Israeli citizens between the U.S. and any third country where they are allowed to disembark". In the letter, the DOT also accused Kuwait Airways of following the Arab League boycott of Israel. Additionally, New York City Councilmember Rory Lancman asked the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates JFK Airport, to "terminate the airline's lease if it doesn't immediately change its policy." For its part, the airline said that it complies with Kuwaiti Law which prohibits the company from entering "into an agreement, personally or indirectly, with entities or persons residing in Israel, or with Israeli citizenship." The airline also petitioned the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review the dispute.The matter was settled on 15 December 2015, when Kuwait Airways informed the United States Department of Transportation that it would eliminate service between JFK and London Heathrow, with The Daily Telegraph reporting that tickets for the route were no longer being sold effective the following week.
A similar lawsuit was filed in 2017 by the Lawfare Project against the airline for refusing to allow Israelis on a flight from Frankfurt to Bangkok with a layover in Kuwait. Unlike the case of the New York to London route, in this lawsuit, the German court upheld the right of the airline to refuse passengers with Israeli passports to layover in Kuwait.
Corporate affairs and identity
Ownership
Kuwait Airways is wholly owned by the government of Kuwait, as of 2023.Privatisation plans
Privatisation started being considered in the mid 1990s, in a period that followed the Gulf War when the carrier experienced a heavy loss on its assets. The company was turned into a corporation in 2004. A draft decree for its privatisation was approved by the government on 21 July 2008. Plans were to sell up to 35% of the stake to a long-term investor and another 40% allotted to the public, whereas the government would hold the remaining 25%. These plans also contemplated the exclusion of domestic carrier competitors, such as Jazeera Airways, as potential bidders. Furthermore, the government also committed to keeping the workforce invariant for at least years and those who were not to be retained would be offered the opportunity to be transferred to other government dependencies without altering their salaries and holding similar working conditions.In 2011, the privatisation committee valued the carrier at million, following advice by the Citigroup, Ernst & Young and Seabury. The process was expected to be concluded by March 2011. However, in that year, the committee recommended the airline to go through a reorganisation process before continuing with the privatisation programme, something that was approved by Kuwait Council of Ministers. The privatisation draft was amended and the government signed a contract with the International Air Transport Association for the provision of consultation expertise. The law for the privatisation of Kuwait Airways Corporation was passed in January 2013.