Excellencies,
Representatives of Mawasem Wings and Onur Air,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to attend the launching event of Onur Air and announcing flights between Turkey and Kuwait.

I am also delightful that the event takes place on a very significant day for Turkey. It is 23rd April. Today is the 99th anniversary of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. So, let me use this occasion to celebrate all my citizens’ National Sovereignty and Children’s Day.

Dear guests,

The relations between Turkey and Kuwait stand on very strong historical, cultural and traditional base. I am glad to see the excellent pace of development of the relations between our countries, under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and His Highness the Amir. We regard Kuwait as invaluable partner, not only in our bilateral relations, but also in global humanitarian and peace efforts.

Our economic and commercial relations with Kuwait have reached an important level. However, I need to admit that it is not at the level of political or people-to-people relations yet. There is so much room for further improvement.

Distinguished guests,

I believe tourism will play an engine role in our efforts to further strengthen our relations in different fields. Indeed, the tourism figures are already promising. While 255 thousand Kuwaitis visited Turkey in 2017, it increased to almost 300 thousand in 2018. I am proud to say that our Kuwaiti friends rank first in the tourist number visiting Turkey, if you compare the tourist number to the country’s population.

Turkey is currently the 6th most popular tourist destination in the world. It attracted almost 40 million foreign tourists in 2018. More than 100 million passengers travelled to or through Istanbul in 2018. With the New Istanbul Airport coming into service early this month, Turkey has become the most important transit hub between north-south and east-west axes.

Tourism will be a much more encouraging field that both Turkey and Kuwait benefit. Therefore, we want more Turkish tourists visiting Kuwait, too. Within this framework, airline companies need to have a leading role.

In that sense, I am happy that another Turkish carrier joins the club to have scheduled flights between Turkey and Kuwait. As you know, Onur Air is the first private airline to start domestic flights after the opening of domestic air transport in Turkey to the private sector in 2003.

I congratulate Onur Air for its decision to start flights to Kuwait as of June 4, 2019. I earnestly wish success to Onur Air and hope that its Istanbul-Kuwait flights, 6 days a week, will contribute to our efforts to make Kuwait and Turkey more attractive destinations.

Thank you.