Welcome back: Kuwait Airways’ inaugural flight from Kuwait City to KLIA as the plane lands in Kuala Lumpur. — YAP CHEE HONG/The Star
SEPANG: After seven years, Kuwait Airways is finally back in Malaysia’s skies.
The first Kuwait Airways flight, a Boeing 777-300ER plane, touched down at the KL International Airport here at 11.40am yesterday to the traditional greeting of water cannons.
Carrying some 300 passengers, the KU409 flight had earlier taken off from Kuwait City at 3.40am Malaysia time.
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 would be twice weekly, adding that this would be increased with growing demand.
“Kuwait is an international hub and Malaysians will be able to transit worldwide from Kuwait to destinations like London, United Kingdom, and Munich, Germany.
“Kuwait Airways’ aircraft is one of the new 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.
Currently, Malaysia is one of three countries in South-East Asia that are catering for Kuwait Airways. The other two destinations are Bangkok, Thailand, and Jakarta, Indonesia.
The company, said Aziz, was also cooperating with the Sarawak government to make Kuching International Airport an umrah hub to cater to passengers from Borneo, Indonesia and southern Philippines.
He said there were also plans 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 been in the works since 2018 but was delayed due to the pandemic.
He said there were other issues that fuelled the temporary halt since 2015 such as the decline of passengers.
However, the airline, he added, was now convinced that there was an increase in demand and had decided to resume its operations.
