Jazeera Airways shifts to high gear on expansion

Jazeera Airways started flight operations in 2005 and grew modestly until 2017, reaching 17 destinations with a fleet of seven aircraft. Since 2017, the airline has grown dramatically. It now flies to 55 destinations with 19 aircraft. Romana Parvi, Regional Manager, South A sia, Jazeera Airways, shares more on the latest developments at the airline.

- Prashant Nayak

Like all other airlines of the world, Jazeera Airways was not immune from the effects of the pandemic. At the beginning of the lockdown, the

airline took some painful yet necessary steps to control costs. As a result of this and after some very innovative commercial decisions and the dedication of the Jazeera Team, they quickly returned to profitability in the second half of 2021. They recently announced their nine-month 2022 results with a group Net Profit of KD21.76m, carrying 2.6 million passengers at a 76.4 per cent load factor.

“We have restored our business postpandemic and made strong growth as reflected in our financial performance. This has been stimulated operationally with the launch of 11 new routes since the beginning of the year and bringing of an additional two aircraft into the fleet. We operate a fleet of 8 x Airbus 320 and 11 x 320neo,” shares Romana.

Jazeera also owns and operates its terminal in Kuwait – Jazeera Terminal 5. It gives end-to-end airline control of the passenger experience. The terminal itself contributes to around 20 percent of the overall group profits. With their route expansion, they just finished a major phase of expansion in their terminal, which would up the capacity from 3 million passengers to about 4.5 million passengers.