KUWAIT AIRWAYS plans to commission its larger aircraft on some of the scheduled flights operating from Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram to Kuwait during January 2004 to meet the growing passenger demand.

Official sources told Business Line that the airline will operate the larger Airbus A-300 aircraft instead of an Airbus A-310 aircraft to both the Indian cities during January next year. The change of aircraft will offer more than 50 additional seats per flight in each direction, officials said. The move will result in more than 500 additional seats being offered from the two destinations to Kuwait.

While the airline will operate an Airbus A-300 aircraft on January 3, 5, 7, 14, 19 and 26 from Chennai, it plans to press into service the larger aircraft on the Thiruvananthapuram-Kuwait sector on January 17, 22 and 29.

The decision to operate a larger aircraft to the two cities is being taken as part of the `open-sky' policy of the Indian Government. The Union Government is following an open-sky policy for a three-month period starting December. However, in a departure from the past, the Indian authorities extended the open-sky policy to include the airlines from the Gulf region this year.

Besides, during the three-month period, the airline will be deploying larger aircraft at short notice on some other Indian destinations if there is enough passenger demand. Sources said the airline operated a larger Boeing 747-400 aircraft on the Kuwait-Mumbai-Kuwait sector tonight as there was heavy passenger demand.

Kuwait Airways operates 25 weekly flights to India, including a daily service to both Delhi and Mumbai, apart from offering a four-times-a-week connection from Chennai and a three-times-a-week connection from Kochi.

**I know that KUs royal family has a B 744 of its own but does KU too use them on commercial flights to CAIRO and now BOM???