Kuwait Airport Recovery May Take Year

Speaking at the 82nd Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit in Rio de Janeiro, IATA’s Regional Vice-President for Africa and the Middle East, Kamil Alawadhi, said early assessments suggest the impact on airport infrastructure is severe.

He said the damage appeared extensive based on available images and video footage, though Kuwaiti authorities are still conducting formal evaluations and have not issued an official repair timeline.

“From the videos and pictures sent to me, my guess is that recovery could take at least a year. The roof is gone,” Alawadhi said.

The incident, which occurred less than a week ago, has raised concerns over wider disruptions to aviation infrastructure and operations across the Gulf region.

Alawadhi noted that the affected terminal had been used primarily by non-Kuwaiti airlines, which has significantly impacted international operations at the airport.

At present, only Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways are able to operate normally, as they use separate terminals unaffected by the damage.

He added that authorities may need to accelerate parts of Kuwait’s new terminal development or temporarily allow foreign carriers to operate from facilities currently assigned to national airlines to restore capacity.