KUWAIT CITY, Sept 2: Kuwait International Airport recently witnessed the return of thousands of citizens and expatriates, after spending their vacation in different countries for tourism or the expatriates’ home countries to visit their families; coinciding with the end of the summer break and start of the new academic year, reports Al-Rai daily. The daily recently monitored the movement of arriving passengers at Terminal One and interviewed the Director of the Airport Operations Department at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Mansour Al- Hashemi who revealed that the most preferred holiday destinations included Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Dubai, Mashhad and London.

Al-Hashemi said his department laid down an integrated plan to better serve those returning to the country -- in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior, Kuwait General Administration of Customs (KGAC), airlines, and ground service companies -- to efficiently deal with the expected influx of passengers. He revealed the plan includes opening additional passport counters, operating baggage conveyors at full capacity, and assigning workers to load bags and deliver them to the baggage counters. He added the airport is operating as per the timetable in coordination with the authorities assigned at the airport to be fully prepared for various occasions and seasons when the number of arriving and departing passengers is usually high.

He confirmed that the Quality Control Team is currently evaluating the airport services to identify problems and take appropriate measures to ensure there is no mistakes, that could lead to confusion among passengers or authorities assigned at the airport. He stated that the DGCA recorded active air traffic movement from June 1 to Aug 15; during which the number of departure flights reached 12,940 while the arrival flights reached 12,938 or a total of 25,878 flights. He added the number of departing passengers reached 1,919,727 while the number of arriving passengers reached 1,652,261 or a total of 3,571,988 passengers.