Boss of Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways sees demand returning by Q4

Boss of Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways sees demand returning by Q4

The chairman of Kuwait-based Jazeera Airways has predicted that travel will gradually return to its pre-2019 levels by the fourth quarter after being pummelled by the impact of the global coronavirus pandemic.

"We are very optimistic for the year 2022,” Marwan Boodai told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting (AGM).

Airline reported $18.3m loss for third quarter

He said Jazeera's flexible business model allowed the airline to adapt in times of crisis to protect its customers, employees and shareholders' value.

“We were able to reallocate our resources to support our local community and economy in a commitment to our role as a Kuwaiti national carrier, served our customers when government regulations permitted and continued to commit to our obligations,” he said.

During 2020, flights were suspended at Kuwait International Airport for close to six months from March 13 and extremely restricted for the rest of the year.

While the airline postponed some of its expansion plans, Boodai (pictured below) said Jazeera placed its resources to serve local efforts to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, in addition to focusing on connecting flights between points that had high demand and were underserved.

The airline also started full-cargo flights and continued to work on its future expansion plans once travel