Kuwait Air eyes March-end sale

State-owned Kuwait Airways will be privatised by the end of March, the chairman of the Gulf Arab carrier was quoted as saying in a Kuwait newspaper on Wednesday.

Hamad Al-Falah told Arabic language daily An Nahar that "the transformation procedures are in the final stages."

Last August, Kuwait appointed Citigroup, Ernst & Young and aviation services firm Seabury to handle the privatisation of its national carrier.

Kuwait's parliament approved a plan in 2008 to privatise loss-making Kuwait Airways Corp. Under the plan, the government will sell 40 per cent of the flag carrier to the public and 35 percent to a long-term investor.

Ahmed Al Hilal, Director of Marketing and Sales at Kuwait Airways, told this website in May 2010 that under the privatisation plan, 35 per cent will be offered to Kuwaiti firms, five per cent to employees and 40 per cent to the general public.

The airline has a fleet of 17 planes.

Falah also told the newspaper that its fleet of five Airbus A300 jets, grounded last month for inspection, were back in service.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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