Kuwait airport to operate at full capacity within two weeks

Kuwait: Authorities will decide the possibility of opening the Kuwait international airport with full capacity within two weeks, local media from country reported on Saturday.

The supreme ministerial committee for COVID-19 emergencies will hold a meeting in the coming days to coordinate with health authorities about the decision to reopen the airport, said the Al-Qabas daily. The civil aviation department is awaiting the schedule to resume direct flights from Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.

This comes after three of the six banned countries including India were allowed to resume direct flights to Kuwait, started from September 6 this year.

The decline in COVID-19 numbers in Kuwait has revived hopes that the pandemic will gradually recede and normal life will return, as the recovery rate from COVID-19 in the country has risen to 99 percent on September 9, taking Kuwait second in the Gulf in terms of recovery rates from the pandemic.

The general administration of civil aviation (GACA) in Kuwait announced in late August an increase in the operating capacity and passenger capacity coming to the country to 10,000 passengers per day, up from 5,000 in early July.

In early August, Kuwaiti authorities allowed non-Kuwaiti citizens to enter the country; provided that they receive two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine based on the approval of the ministerial committee for COVID emergencies.

At the end of June 2020, the Kuwaiti civil aviation announced that the operation of the Kuwait airport would be done in 3 phases: First by 30 percent (August 2020), second by 40 percent to 50 percent (February 2021), and the third is to be fully operational by 100 per cent in August 2021. However, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the implementation of these stages.