Kuwait Airways

Kuwait Airways aims to re-establish its network to reach more than 46 countries around the globe with a firm commitment to providing the finest service and comfort to passengers while continuing to rank safety as one of its highest priorities. The company is renamed Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) as the government acquires a half interest. The Kuwaiti government buys the remainder of KAC's shares; the first jets enter the fleet. Most of KAC's assets are lost in the Iraqi invasion; operations continue from the Cairo base. Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) is the flag carrier of Kuwait. The airline had a fleet of 17 aircraft, all but two of them Airbuses, when it celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2004. KAC also has catering and aircraft maintenance organizations that serve airlines passing through Kuwait. These were to be spun off. The carrier itself has been under consideration for privatization since 1996. The country's Persian Gulf location has been both a liability--as during the Iraq invasion--and advantage for the airline. The Indian subcontinent, the source of much of Kuwait's guest work population, is KAC's busiest market. Kuwait Airways dates its founding back to 1954, when two local businessmen launched the Kuwait National Airways Company. Start-up capital was KWD 150,000, the equivalent of $500,000 in 2004, reports Airliner World. The fleet consisted of three Douglas DC-3s. Flight operations began on March 16, 1954, connecting Kuwait City with Abadan, Iran; Beirut, Lebanon; Damascus, Syria; and Jerusalem. The company was renamed Kuwait Airways Corporation the next year as the government acquired a half interest. The route network was expanded throughout the Gulf region with the addition of leased, four-engined Vickers Viscount aircraft in 1958. The government of Kuwait, which became independent from Great Britain in 1961, bought the remainder of KAC's shares in May 1962 after the launch of rival Trans Arabian Airways made the competitive situation difficult. The government acquired a controlling interest in Trans Arabian in April 1964 and folded its Douglas DC-6 aircraft into the KAC fleet. In the meantime, KAC had begun operating its first jet aircraft, de Havilland Comets, in 1962. This allowed the company to venture into Europe with a six-hour nonstop to London. The Comets were soon supplemented with a handful of newer planes, Hawker Siddeley Tridents and BAC One-Elevens. The One-Elevens were leased off within a couple of years, but the Tridents were very successful plying routes in the Middle East. KAC bought its first Boeing aircraft when it acquired three 707 airliners in November 1968 at a cost of about $25 million. By 1976, the airline had retired its earlier jets and turboprops and was flying a fleet of eight 707s. These were supplemented with midsize Boeing 737s and widebody 727s, one of which was operated exclusively for the government. KAC received its first of four Boeing 747 jumbo jets in August 1978. These long-range giants allowed the airline to begin extending the London service to New York City as well as start service to Manila in the Philippines. Although the 747 service proved popular, KAC elected to replace its short- and medium-range fleet with A300 and A310 aircraft from the European consortium Airbus. The first of these were added to the fleet in September 1983. The 11 A300s were valued at about $1 billion. The Iran-Iraq war and political instability in the Middle East were blamed for a 10 percent fall in annual revenues in the mid-1980s. The airline stepped up its marketing efforts to compensate for a drop in traffic. KAC also had to contend with hijackings in 1984 and 1988. Boeing was able to win back some of KAC's business when it sold the airline three Boeing 767s, which were delivered in 1986. KAC ended the 1980s with about two dozen aircraft in all. It was ferrying about 1.5 million passengers a year among 42 destinations in 35 countries. The airline had been profitable sin