Chaos in the Middle East: Kuwait City airport reopens. Gulf bigs on the upswing, how many flights are operating
While the truce between the United States and Iran continues but a solution to the conflict still appears uncertain in ways and [...]
Qatar Airways
Flydubai
Etihad Airways
Emirates
SHJ
While the truce between the United States and Iran continues but a solution to the conflict still appears uncertain in terms of how and when it will be resolved, positive news is coming out of the Gulf in terms of a resumption of activity by carriers in the region. The ceasefire has now lasted for about three weeks and carriers are gaining 'confidence' as to a gradual return to normalcy.
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The news today, April 27, is that after two months, Kuwait's airspace has been re-opened to commercial flights and airlines, including 'home' airlines Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways have resumed flying from the Kuwaiti airport, after for a few weeks, following Gulf Air's example, Kuwait Airways had kept some routes active but transferring them to the Saudi airport in Dammam.
According to data provided by Flightradar24, on this first day of resumption of operations, 62 departures are scheduled from Kuwait City, all by Kuwait Airways and Jazeera except for one Egyptair flight from Cairo and one by Turkish Airlines from Istanbul.
Flightradar also provided the latest update regarding the operations of the five major Gulf carriers, making a comparison with the scheduling of the same in the days before the outbreak of war on February 28.
The airline that, percentage-wise, has recovered the most since March 1 (in which flights had practically ground to zero) is Emirates, which on April 26 was able to operate more than the 75% of its 'normal' prewar schedule.
The Dubai-based carrier is followed in this particular ranking by Etihad, which on the same day operated just under 70% of routes carried out until February 27. One step below is. Air Arabia (which includes both the Sharjah-based and Abu Dhabi-based branches) that Is at about 65% of its 'normal' scheduled. Better than Qatar Airways which is around 55% of its potential, and flydubai which is around 50%.
Looking specifically at the numbers, according to Flightradar 24 data, Emirates had operated 531 rotations last Feb. 27 (takeoffs and landings) to and from its Dubai hub, dropped to 224 on Feb. 28 and just 24 on March 1. On April 26, it returned to 407 rotations.
Qatar Airways on Feb. 27 had been by far the top airline in terms of movements on its Doha hub, with 583. But the geographic location of the airport had led to the closure of Qatari airspace for days, and so, while rotations had dropped to 213 on Feb. 28, over the next four days they had been reduced to 3, 2, 5, 9, respectively (all of them, moreover, aircraft repositioning flights).
The situation improved markedly and stable form March 20, when the number of flights settled regularly above 100, and then gained new momentum from April 1 (well over 200 daily flights from there on) to 324 movements on April 26.
As for Etihad, had come down from the 334 flights operated on Feb. 27 to 90 on Feb. 28 and 4 on March 1, then rising above 100 by mid-March and above 200 since mid-April (219 on April 26).
Flydubai had come down from the 343 flights operated on Feb. 27 to 108 the next day, to one flight on March 1, returning April 26 at 173 daily rotations.
Air Arabia, finally, had gone from 305 arrivals and departures on Feb. 27 to 103 the next day to touch zero movements on March 1 and 2. On March 26, he made 189 rotations.
