Kuwait - KUNA
The Jazeera Airways, the Kuwaiti leading private low-fare airline, reported Saturday a remarkable growth in the number of passengers boarding its flights as well as its market share in the key routes in January 2013. The award-winning airline issued Saturday its January 2013 Operational Performance Report which showed that the airline has carried increasing number of passengers on key routes that include the destinations of Amman, Beirut, Bahrain, Assiut, Dubai, Jeddah, Luxor, and Sohag. The monthly report, based on official statistics from Kuwait\'s Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA), revealed that Jazeera Airways was the leading airline serving popular expat destinations of Amman, Assiut, Luxor, and Sohag. The airline grabbed a 39 percent market share on the Kuwait-Amman route, a 6.4 percent up compared with that of January 2012. The number of passengers on this route witnessed a 27.5 percent hike in January 2013 versus January 2012. The data also showed that the Jazeera Airways was the leading airline on the Kuwait-Assiut route with a 63 percent market share, on the Kuwait-Luxor route with a 72 percent market share, and on the Kuwait-Sohag route with a 50 percent market share. The airline\'s market share increased by 17.6 percent on the Kuwait-Assiut route; by 1.9 percent on the Kuwait-Luxor route; and by 15.4 percent on the Kuwait-Sohag route in January 2012 compared with the corresponding period a year earlier. Passengers on routes serving Assiut, Luxor and Sohag increased by 42.1 percent, 27.4 percent and 33.9 percent respectively from January 2012. The airline was also the leading Kuwaiti airline on routes serving high demand cities of Beirut with a 39 percent market share, Bahrain with an 11 percent market share, Dubai with a 17 percent market share, and Alexandria with a 21 percent market share. The number of passengers also jumped on routes serving Beirut, Bahrain and Dubai. Passengers on the Kuwait-Beirut route swelled by 6.8 percent from January 2012, while passengers on the Kuwait-Bahrain and Kuwait-Dubai routes went up by 17.3 percent and 8.3 percent respectively from January 2012. On the Kuwait-Jeddah route, Jazeera Airways\' market share inflated by 2.3 percent from January 2012 to a 17 percent market share in January 2013, accompanied by a 17.9 percent increase in passengers compared to January 2012.