Kuwait Airways is continuing its fleet modernization, as the state-owned carrier has just taken delivery of its first narrow body aircraft with flat beds in business class.
Kuwait Airways adding nine Airbus A321neos to fleet
Kuwait Airways has recently taken delivery of its first of nine Airbus A321neo aircraft. The first aircraft has the registration code 9K-AQA, and it flew from Toulouse (TLS) to Kuwait City (KWI) on May 15, 2025, and then operated its first passenger flight to Dubai (DXB) on May 21, 2025.
Kuwait Airways is configuring these jets with 166 seats, including 16 business class seats and 150 economy class seats. What’s perhaps most noteworthy about these new planes is that they feature flat beds in business class, which is the first time that the airline has offered such a product on a narrow body aircraft.
As you can see, business class is in a 2-2 configuration, spread across four rows. It appears to be similar to the product you’ll find on Air Europa and Royal Air Maroc Boeing 787-8s, which isn’t exactly my favorite business class hard product.
The A321neo is a lovely jet, with impressive range, economics, and passenger comfort. It remains to be seen if the airline will primarily use the A321neo to fly regionally, or if it’ll operate some flights to Europe, Africa, etc. For what it’s worth, three of the nine orders are for the longer range A321LR, so maybe those will be configured differently, and used for longer flights.
I’ve gotta say, the layout of this jet seems really inefficient, as it “only” has 166 seats. For example, ITA Airways’ A321neos have 165 seats, all while having a much better business class product with direct aisle access, plus a premium economy cabin. So the airline really didn’t do a great job optimizing this LOPA.
Kuwait Airways has nicely modernized its fleet, but…
Kuwait Airways has invested a 10-figure sum in modernizing its fleet in recent years. The airline used to have one of the oldest fleets of any airline in the region, but in recent years, the airline has taken delivery of new jets while retiring older ones. This includes taking delivery of Airbus A320neos, Airbus A330-800neos and A330-900neos, and Boeing 777-300ERs (before that). At this point, the carrier’s average fleet age is only five years.
Unfortunately the sad reality is that even with these investments, the airline has fairly little to show for it in terms of creating a competitive passenger experience. As an example, last year I flew Kuwait Airways’ 777 first class, and it was just… not great.
On the plus side, the A330neos feature a better business class experience, but still, there’s not much consistency across the fleet, given the lackluster business class product on the 777s. A couple of years back, Kuwait Airways highlighted how it would massively upgrade its soft product, but that just hasn’t materialized as promised.
Some might argue, “well maybe this is what they’re going for.” After all, Kuwait Airways isn’t likely to capture much connecting traffic (unless it undercuts the competition on price), and the airline has a decent network out of Kuwait, to serve the local community. But I also don’t think that the government is happy with the current situation, given that the airline continues to lose huge amounts of money, and the CEO was dismissed in recent weeks.
It actually seems pretty easy to make Kuwait Airways competitive, but it also seems like the company can’t get out of its own way, so…
Bottom line
Kuwait Airways has just taken delivery of its first of nine Airbus A321neo jets. What’s most interesting about these aircraft is that they feature flat beds in business class, which is the first time we’ve seen this on the carrier. It’s not necessarily my favorite product, and I can’t make sense of the inefficiency of the layout, but hey, that’s better than non-flat bed.
It’s nice to see Kuwait Airways continue to modernize, even if the execution could be a bit better.
What do you make of Kuwait Airways’ new A321neo?
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