Kuwait City, March 28: Kuwait’s private low-cost Jazeera Airways said on Sunday it posted a loss of 28.5 million dollars in 2009 compared with a net profit of 15.6 million dollars the previous year.
The no-frills company said the loss was incurred due to the fallout of the global economic crisis but did not elaborate.
The airway’s assets rose slightly to 256 million dollars at the end of last year compared with 253.5 million dollars in 2008, the company said in a statement on the Kuwait Stock Exchange website.
Shareholder’s equity dropped sharply to 67.7 million dollars last year from 96.2 million dollars at the end of 2008, it said.
Jazeera, which began operations in October 2005, has 11 Airbus A320s and flies to about 25 destinations in the Middle East and Asia as well as Turkey at highly reduced fares. It has ordered a further 29 Airbus A320s.
The Kuwaiti carrier used to operate from two hubs in Kuwait City and Dubai, but it pulled out of Dubai in June 2009 at the time the emirate’s own budget carrier, Flydubai, took off.
—Agencies