Tuesday, Jun 21, 2011
BEIRUT (Zawya Dow Jones)--Kuwait National Airways (KNA.KW), which suspended its operations earlier this year due to losses, Tuesday, said its board has decided to dismiss the carrier's chief executive, George Cooper.
The board has also removed an item on the agenda of the shareholders' next meeting about a planned 15 million Kuwaiti dinars ($54.65 million) capital increase, the airline, better known as Wataniya Airways, said in a statement posted on the Kuwait bourse website.
The capital hike was tied to a possible agreement with the local Alafco Aviation Lease and Finance Co. and since no agreement has been reached the clause has been cancelled, it added.
Wataniya said earlier that it was in talks with Alafco over $70 million in compensation because the airline had terminated aircraft leasing contracts.
Alafco said in a separate statement Tuesday that it sent on June 14 a settlement proposal to Wataniya but it hasn't received any reply until now whether of approval, rejection, or amendment.
Wataniya said in the Tuesday statement that the board has also decided to call for an extraordinary shareholder meeting to discuss the continuation of the company in the future.
The airline said in March its full-year 2010 net loss widened to nearly KWD14.1 million, from a loss of KWD10.9 million in the previous year.
A Wataniya executive said in May that the airline's resumption of its operations would depend on whether its shareholders approve the capital increase.
By Shikrallah Nakhoul, Zawya Dow Jones, +961 1 985757, shikrallah@zawya.com
Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
21-06-11 1137GMT
