KUWAIT, Feb 3 (KUNA) -- The air traffic in the Kuwait airport hit record numbers in 2009 as there was an increase in the number of commercial flights at 28 percent , a 12-percent hike in the number of passengers along with 10-percent augment in air freight compared with 2008, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said here Wednesday.
The total number of passengers surged from 7.226 passengers in 2008 to 8.
125 passengers in 2009 at a rate of 12 percent, while the plane traffic rose up to 12 percent of the total 87.920 flights in 2008 to reach 98.104 flights in 2009, according to the data released by the DGCA.
The data also pointed out that the number of the commercial planes rose up at a rate of 28 percent of the total 61.512 flights in 2008 to 78.596 flights in 2009, while the non-commercial flights went down at a rate of 26 percent of the total 26.408 flights in 2008 to 19.508 flights in 2009.
It also referred to a surge in the air freight traffic at a rate of 10 percent from a total of 180.089 million k.g. in 2008 to 197.214 million k.g. in 2009.
Deputy Director General of the DGCA Nabil Al-Zamel told the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) today the Kuwait airport traffic saw record levels in 2009 with the expansion in the activities of both of national and foreign air operators, despite the gloomy economic atmosphere experienced by the world this year.
Al-Zamel attributed this big increase in air traffic to the open air policy followed by the DGCA, the signing of several bilateral agreements with other countries, offering facilities and encouraging world airways to send flights to the Kuwait International Airport along with upgrading its services.
He went on to say that the Jazeera Airways had the lion's share of this increase in air traffic, as it added new points to its network, either through sending flights to Abu Dhabi, Isfahan, Anatolia, Deir Al-Zor, Hurghada and Marsa Alam, besides the relaunching of Aleppo's flights.
The 2009 also saw a launching of the third Kuwaiti national air operator, Al-Wataniya Airways, with flights directed to Bahrain, Beirut, Jeddah, Dubai, Damascus, Sharm Al-Sheikh, Amman and Cairo, he said.
The same year also witnessed the launching of air flights by the National Air Service of Saudi Arabia (NAS) to the destinations of Jeddah, Riyadh and Madinah.
The Singapore Airlines also had its share with launching some flights from and to Singapore via Abu Dhabi alongside Mihin Lanka Airways initiating flights to and from Colombo via Dubai, Iranian Mahan Air Company launching flights from and to the Iranian city of Mashhad as well as the launching of air flights by the Egyptian Alamia Airways to and from Alexandria, Assiut and Luxor.
Finally, he said that the Ukraine International Airlines relaunched its seasonal flights to and from Kiev alongside the relaunching of Kandahar and Najaf by the Global Airways, the launching of Al-Riyan flights by the Yemeni Airways as well as the Bulgarian Airways' addition of the coastal city of Burgas to its seasonal destinations. - Kuna