Director General of the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation, Eng Yousef Al-Fawzan, said the Kuwait International Airport is currently operating at 60 percent of its capacity in terms of the number of aircraft and daily flights.

He revealed, according to a local Arabic daily, the airport will operate to its full potential (100 percent) during the next summer, with life returning to normal after all conditions imposed by the emerging corona virus pandemic are done away with and dusted.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Ghabga organized by the Federation of Tourism and Travel Offices, Sunday evening at the Four Seasons Hotel, Al-Fawzan confirmed that the DGCA has completed all preparations for the holiday and summer season.

He pointed out that the airport is currently handling about 300 incoming and outgoing flights per day but the number will reach 500 per day during the summer.

Al-Fawzan explained DGCA took advantage of Covid-19 pandemic to develop projects and infrastructure, noting that the completion of the new tower and the third runway is expected to be in operation in the middle of 2023.

Regarding the radar project, he stressed that there are development projects in accordance with international requirements and laws. “Without a doubt, the T2 airport is a quantum leap, since it will handle 25 million passengers annually, and it is expected, according to the programs of the Ministry of Works, to be completed in the middle of 2024.”

In this context, Al-Fawzan denied rumors circulating about delaying the project after the recent fire, stressing that it was simple and did not delay the program.

He added, “We are keeping pace with all developments in the air transport market and are working to establish new airports, and there will undoubtedly be a new airport in the future, but so far we have not taken a decision” in this regard.

For his part, the head of the Federation of Tourism and Travel Offices, Muhammad Lafi Al-Mutairi, indicated that “the civil aviation industry has been significantly affected by the repercussions of the pandemic for two whole years, as the preliminary estimates of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) indicate that the expected losses during the three years from 2020 to 2023 up to $200 billion.”

He added: “We are optimistic, according to the numbers and statistics of sales of tickets in the first three months of 2022, as they amounted to 82 million dinars in all travel offices, at a rate of 27 million dinars per month, meaning that if the situation continues as it is until the end of the year, we will reach more than 320 million dinars, and in 2019, the total sales of travel offices were 312 million.”


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