KLIA Welcomes Kuwait Airways
Kuala Lumpur (MALAYSIA AIRPORTS BHD) - Kuwait Airways made its maiden flight to KL International Airport (KLIA) today, becoming the seventh airline from the Middle East to operate to KLIA.
Currently, Middle Eastern airlines serving Kuala Lumpur are Emirates, Gulf Air, Iran Air, Qatar Airways, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Yemenia Yemen Airways.
Flight KU413 arrived at 3.00pm and arriving passengers, which included Sheikh Talal Mubarak Abdulla Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah (Chairman & Managing Director of Kuwait Airways Corporation), media, travel agents and corporate friends were greeted and presented souvenirs by YB Dato' Sri Chan Kong Choy, Minister of Transport accompanied by Y. Bhg. Tan Sri Datuk Dr. Aris Othman, Chairman of Malaysia Airports and Y. Bhg. Dato' Seri Bashir Ahmad, Managing Director of Malaysia Airports.
Kuwait Airways will fly twice weekly on the Kuwait-Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur vice versa route, utilising Airbus A340 aircraft. At KLIA, the arrival flights are on Wednesdays and Saturdays while the departing flights are on Thursdays and Sundays.
Dato' Seri Bashir Ahmad said: "We are very delighted to welcome yet another airline to KLIA, which will see the total number of airlines operating at KLIA rise to 46." Dato' Seri Bashir said that this latest news is a further testament that the airport operator‰Ûªs concerted efforts to bring more airlines to fly to Kuala Lumpur are bearing fruit.
He further added: "We have been holding discussions and negotiations in a bid to attract this airline to leverage on KLIA' s competitiveness, and we are elated to see these efforts materialise."
He said: "We will further intensify our marketing efforts to attract more foreign airlines, particularly from China and India as we already have an impressive number of Middle East airlines operating here."
The operations of Kuwait Airways to Malaysia will further promote tourism into Malaysia, thus providing a major boost to the nation's tourism industry. It also proves that Malaysia is one of the main tourist attractions for Middle Eastern travellers.
KLIA registered a total number of 699, 551 Middle Eastern passenger movements last year and the number is set to increase with the inclusion of Kuwait Airways.
Kuwait Airways operates international scheduled services, throughout the Middle East, and to Europe, the Far East, North America and Asia. Kuwait Airways fleet now comprises three A320-200s, three A310-300s, five A300-605Rs, four A340-300s and two Boeing B777s, bringing the fleet to 17 aircraft, equipped with the latest entertainment systems.
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