Jazeera cuts routes to stay in profit

The Kuwaiti airline is dropping its Tehran service as well as its Dubai-Bahrain route from 3 January. Until earlier this year it operated a hub from Dubai but argued it had been forced out by rising prices and lack of profitable routes.

It is also cutting its Kuwait-Mumbai route the following day. A new route to Latakia - which had been scheduled to start on 15 December – was   postponed.

According to CEO, Stefan Pichler, the carrier is still looking at two potential bases in the Middle East and North Africa region and says Jazeera is only looking outside the GCC because it is oversaturated with over half of the region's seats but only 30% of the region's population.

"We'll go to the undersupplied market, the non-GCC," Pichler told journalists at the Dubai Air Show.

Sharjah rival Air Arabia has also aimed at the non-GCC region in establishing bases in Morocco and Egypt.

Kuwait's Jazeera Airways turned in a small profit of KD760,000 ($2.7 million) during the third quarter. This profit figure is half that posted in 2008 although Jazeera flew 65% more passengers in Q3   2009 - over 582,000 - compared with the same period last year.

The airline, which operates 10 Airbus A320s and will take another in January, is claiming to have achieved market leadership in Kuwait.