KUWAIT: After being suspended in a dispute over his plans to buy used aircraft, Sami Al-Nisf, Chairman of the Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) held a press conference at the Kuwait Journalists' Association yesterday to salvage his reputation and explain facts behind the purchase proposal. The plan to buy five used Airbus A330 from India's Jet Airways was a part of a previous deal to buy 25 new Airbus jets. "The Minister of Communication Essa Al- Kanderi announced that this decision to buy was taken individually without the approval of the KAC's board.
I assure you that during our meeting, all members gave their verbal approval and the meeting was recorded and I even have the recording," said Al-Nisf during the conference. "My responsibility towards my country is do the maximum to save public funds. I also worked hard to protect the interests of KAC. The purchase deal could have saved more than KD 60 million, and we preferred to deal directly with the factory to save money and not through an Indian dealer as stated by the minister.
Furthermore, when I started the business plan at KAC, we successfully cut losses that were at KD 100,000 by more than 25 percent. Through this contract, we could have cut more losses," he added. Al-Nisf slammed rumors that he was slated to benefit from the deal. "I refuse any accusation without proof that may affect my family's name. I will sue those who claimed that I traveled to Brazil on KAC's budget because it's not true. The same applied to the Chief Executive Officer Captain Ahmad Al-Kreibani, who just resigned from his post after canceling the deal.
I visited the factory three times in the past and I refused proposals of different airplanes as I didn't find them suitable," explained Al-Nisf. "The five aircraft are modern as they are only fiveyears- old and were sold immediately when another country canceled the deal, owing to its high demand, especially since there are only two international manufacturers. Airbus suited our needs and that's the reason behind our proposal to buy it. I always aimed to improve KAC and even if the government decided to privatize, it will be sold at a very high price after it improves its position and becomes profitable. We really need to change the fleet as our aircraft are old and we seek better safety" he pointed out.
© Kuwait Times 2013
