Boss of Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways expects H2 travel rebound as airline posts $87m loss

Boss of Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways expects H2 travel rebound as airline posts $87m loss

The chairman of Kuwait-based Jazeera Airways has predicted travel to gradually return to its pre-coronavirus levels starting from the second half of 2021 after the airline posted a KD26.4 million ($87.2 million) loss for last year.

Marwan Boodai said he remained confident that the "high demand for travel to and from Kuwait will always be there and our passengers will want to travel as soon as restrictions are lifted".

"We expect travel to gradually return to its pre-2019 levels starting from the second half of 2021. The focus of Jazeera's board and management now is to come out of this global situation stronger than when it started and active steps are being taken to achieve that goal," he added.

Airline reported $18.3m loss for third quarter

He revealed that Jazeera Airways will be announcing several new launches in the coming few months and will take delivery of four new aircraft during 2021.

His comments comes as the airline made a net loss for the last 12-month period after flying 696,093 passengers during 2020, down from 2.4 million in 2019.

As well as the devastating impact of coronavirus on its performance, Jazeera Airways said its figures were also impacted by various one-offs and adverse accounting treatment, which