SEPANG: The first Kuwait Airways flight landed at the KL International Airport at 11.40am after a seven-year hiatus.
The Boeing 777-300ER with the flight number KU409 carried about 300 passengers and took off from Kuwait City at 3.40am Malaysia time, bringing a positive sign for the tourism industry.
Currently, Malaysia is among the three countries in South-East Asia catering to Kuwait Airways flights.
The other two destinations are Bangkok, Thailand and Jakarta, Indonesia.
Chairman of ATS Global Travel and Charter, a company which was appointed as a general service agent for Kuwait Airways in Malaysia, Datuk A. Aziz Ahmad said the flight frequency will be twice weekly and it will be increased as demand grows.
"Kuwait is an international hub and Malaysians will be able to transit worldwide from Kuwait.
"Kuwait Airways' aircraft are one of the newer ones and the best but as you are all aware we are in the recovery phase so we can expect the frequency to increase in the future," he said.
He added that the company was also cooperating with the Sarawak state government to make Kuching International Airport an umrah hub to cater to the Borneo, Indonesia and Southern Philippines passengers.
Aziz said plans are also brewing for Kuwait Airways to operate from Kuching International Airport.
ATS Global Project Director and Charter Consultant Hisham Haron said plans for Kuwait Airways to resume operations in Malaysia had already been in the works since 2018 but it was delayed due to the pandemic.
He explained that there were other issues that fueled the temporary halt since 2015 such as the decline of passengers.
However, he said, now the airway is convinced that there have been an increase in demand and has decided to resume its operations.
