Nearly 50,000 passengers expected to board new direct flights to Kuwait from Manchester Airport

New direct flights to Kuwait will be launched next month from Manchester Airport. Nearly 50,000 passengers from across the north who currently fly indirectly to the Middle Eastern destination are expected to use the new route in its first year.

With three flights a week, scheduled for Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, the Kuwait Airways service has been hailed by the hub as a 'boost' for the region's trade, tourism and students. Likely to be welcomed by those visiting family the country at the tip of the Persian Gulf, it will also help business owners looking to export to the Gulf Corporation, a connection understood to have suffered in the pandemic but now in recovery.

The route will also serve those passengers, estimated to total around 80,000, looking to use Kuwait as a launchpad for other destinations not served directly by Manchester Airport. These include Bangkok, Mumbai, Delhi, and Manila. With nearly 3,000 Kuwaiti students said to be studying in the hub's catchment area, they are another target audience. It's a potential boon for tourism too; more than 23,000 people a year visited the North West from Kuwait before the pandemic, spending £22m.

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The announcement is a spot of good news amid a torrid time for the hub, which has been bowing under the pressure of increased demand during a staff shortage crisis which prompted boss Charlie Cornish to write an open letter of apology to passengers. It's led to assisstance being offered by Mayor Andy Bunrham and by Manchester Council leader Bev Craig, as the hub management team scramble to get more staff on the floor to meet the mass summer exodus.

Ian Costigan,