Arab Times
KUWAIT CITY , Jun 23: The government has decided to stop all to and fro flights to India by Kuwait Airways, Air India and Indian Airlines with effect from July 2007, reports Al-Qabas daily.
Reportedly the decision was taken after the Indian authorities refused to consider the request of Kuwait authorities to increase the number of flights connecting both the countries. According to sources, both Kuwait and Indian governments are allotted 8,000 seats each to fly passengers to and fro every week but due to the increasing number of passengers, Kuwaiti authorities requested their Indian counterparts to increase the capacity to 12,000 per week.
The request was not honored and irked by the Indian government’s attitude of allegedly following different policies with different airliners, Kuwait top-level officials took the decision to stop all flights by state-owned carriers. Considering the population of Indians in Kuwait, which is nearly 520,000, “8,000 seats per week is very less,” add sources. If the decision comes to effect, thousands of passengers will be forced to change their reservations to other airlines and “since it is a peak season, many passengers may not even get reservations,” noted sources.
Meanwhile, several Indian media personalities lauded bilateral relations between their country and Kuwait and praised the freedom of expression enjoyed by Kuwaiti audio-visual media, an official statement said.
The Editor-in-Chief of the Urdu Times, Saeed Ahmad, said he had the privilege to attend the Jedda Conference, which was held after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and in which the Kuwaiti people renewed their trust in the Al-Sabah ruling family. “Kuwait has also done much to the poor and needy in my country and elsewhere across the world,” Saeed Ahmad said. Ahmad was speaking in a meeting in Mumbai with head of Kuwait Information Office (KIO) in India Mohammad Hassan Al-Bedah, along with mediamen from India.
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