5% increase in total income for Q1 of 2019: KAC Chairman

KUWAIT: Established in 1954, Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) is celebrating its 65th anniversary. During these years, KAC has improved its services and notched up many achievements, which were announced during a press conference held yesterday. "KAC will achieve a five percent increase in total income for the first quarter of 2019 compared to the same period of 2018, and an eight percent increase in number of passengers this year compared to the same period in 2018. In 2017, 4.1 million passengers used KAC, that rose to 4.5 million in 2018, and is expected to reach 4.7 million passengers this year," KAC Chairman Yousef Al-Jasim said.

The 65th anniversary celebrations include various activities. "The marketing and public relations department of KAC has set a schedule of activities that will be held from today till the end of this year as part of the celebrations. These will include various promotions and special offers that will be announced later," he said.

The officials and staff of KAC strive to achieve the planned goals. "We at KAC maintain the highest standards of safety in our operations. Furthermore, we have reached the highest standards of flight schedule discipline that reached between 90- 95 percent, which is higher than the international average of 85 percent. In addition, we provide the best services for our clients before, during and after their trip," explained Jasim.

"We will never go below this high standard of achievements and performance. We will put more efforts to have more achievements and always rank on top of the best airlines. Today we want to announce the new official slogan of celebrating 65 years of establishing KAC - Sure We Can, which expresses our long history of leading in this field and the loyalty of our clients," he pointed out.

After the appointment of a new board of directors of KAC in April 2018, the board set a complete strategy (strategic business plan) for the period between 2018 to 2026, which includes commercial, operations, financial and administrative aspects, in addition to the fleet plan during this period. Jasim also spoke about some achievements of this strategy in 2018. "Achievements include approving the complete organizational structure, appointing an executive director, strategic cooperation with Boeing to establish a regional center in the Middle East and North Africa to train pilots and engineers and launching the new Integrated Operations Control Center (IOCC)," he noted.

Other achievements include revising a contract with Airbus on purchasing the A350-900 and signing a contract to purchase the A330-800 and renew the contract for the A320 NEO, which saved over $100 million and averted any expected losses due to the previous schedule. The final fleet will consist of 10 Boeing B777-300 ER aircraft, eight Airbus A330-800 NEO, five Airbus A350-900 and 15 Airbus A320 NEO planes.

Also, all flights were transferred to Terminal T4 from T1 from Nov 2018 except New York flights. T4 includes a total of 14 gates with a parking lot for 2,000 vehicles. The First Class, Business Class and Oasis Club members lounge was opened in T4. A limousine service was added for first class and royal class passengers. In addition, KAC signed a contract to change the old buses with new ones and increase their number, along with increasing the number of aircraft stairs.

During summer 2018, KAC launched new destinations including Malaga (Spain), Trabzon (Turkey), Tbilisi (Georgia), Munich (Germany), and Vienna (Austria) - the last two are seasonal. KAC is planning to start operating to four new destinations - Nice (France), Sabiha Airport in Istanbul (Turkey), Larnaca (Cyprus) and Guangzhou (China), in addition to plans to launch seasonal destinations including Baku (Azerbaijan), Tbilisi (Georgia), Casablanca (Morocco) and Sarajevo (Bosnia).

KAC increased sales by 14 percent in 2018 comparing to 2017, hiking revenues by 11 percent compared to 2017. The estimated sales for the first quarter of 2019 have reached KD 76.9 million compared to the same period of 2018 with KD 73.1 million. A 24/7 call center, and a new service of communicating with clients through WhatsApp were launched. The Baker Street office of KAC in London was reopened, while a KAC office at The Avenues opened in October. Building of a new tower for KAC on Hilali Street in Kuwait City also began.

By Nawara Fattahova