The Epic of Kuwait Airways

Arab Times

3 days ago

Kuwait Airways is the region's premier airline, but it has faced a number of challenges since its establishment. With the discovery of oil and its introduction to world markets following the end of World War II, a group of visionary Kuwaiti businessmen recognized the importance of connecting their country to the outside world by air. In 1953, they founded Kuwait National Airways, which began operations with a modest fleet of two Douglas aircraft. Its first flight was to Basra, followed by flights to Damascus, Jerusalem, Abadan, and Beirut. I was fortunate to be on board one of these flights in 1956.
Due to special circumstances, the government acquired half of the company in 1955 before completing the full purchase in 1962. This marked the beginning of a new era, characterized by increased funding and extensive government support, especially as the airline expanded its network to cover Europe and Asia. Then came the ordeal of the 1990 Saddam invasion, which marked the darkest chapter in Kuwait Airways' history. The Iraqi regime seized 15 of its aircraft and destroyed many of its facilities without any logical justification. After Kuwait's liberation, Kuwait Airways rebuilt and renewed its fleet, but faced strong competition from emerging airlines in the Gulf region.
The continuous changes in the company's board of directors, and the bad intentions of some members have contributed to increasing its problems and accumulating losses amounting to several billion dinars over 60 years. I do not believe any government agency knows exactly how much has been spent to date. Given the fragile stability of Kuwait Airways' current board of directors, any increase in revenues cannot cover expenses under the current circumstances, especially with a workforce of approximately 7,000 employees.
The Dead Horse Theory, based on wisdom attributed to Native Americans, states that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount and walk. However, in the world of business and government, a wide range of alternative strategies are often employed before giving up. These include buying a stronger whip, changing the jockey, threatening the horse with dismissal, appointing a committee to study the horse's condition, sending 'experts' abroad to observe how others ride dead horses, lowering standards so dead horses can be managed, reclassifying the dead horse as 'living disabled,' hiring foreign contractors to ride the dead horse, harnessing multiple dead horses together to increase speed, providing additional funding and training to improve the dead horse's performance, and conducting productivity studies to see if lighter jockeys might help. It can also be stated that the dead horse requires no feeding, making it less expensive to maintain, incurs no operational costs, and therefore contributes significantly to increased profitability compared to some other horses. Eventually, the dead horse might even be promoted to a supervisory role, and a new one would be hired to take its place. To be clear, I do not advocate for Kuwait Airways to give up or be left to its fate.
On the contrary, I believe the current board of directors should be given the reassurance and stability it needs to remain in office for a sufficient period, long enough to deliver better results. This must be coupled with drawing on global aviation expertise to manage and operate the airline effectively. I have called for this approach on several occasions, especially given that, over 70 years, the company has failed to produce a CEO capable of leading it competently and efficiently without interference. That said, I must acknowledge the few capable CEOs who were allowed to lead Kuwait Airways, albeit for only brief periods.