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As most of you probably already heard, Wataniya Airways is shutting down their operations. I know a lot of you are fans of the airline and will be sad to see it go but I’ve got an even greater attachment to it. I was a part of the team that helped launch the airline and I’ve been working on the brand ever since. The first thing we did was launch the airline with a teaser campaign followed by the revealer and the TV commercial (above). That was back in December 2008 and you can find out the story behind the commercial and check out some behind the scene shots over [Here]
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The following year we released the second commercial (above) which I thought turned out very cool as well. It was just a really great experience working with the brand and they truly wanted to offer the people of Kuwait the best airline experience. Their terminal kicked ass, it was a lot cooler than the main airport terminal, it was cozy, the seating area was very tastefully done, they had free wifi everywhere, it was peaceful, no long cues and just very pleasurable. Their planes were also cool and the fact I could use my phone to check email, make a call or chat with my friends on the Blackberry was also amazing.
But, all good things must come to an end I guess. To me Wataniya Airways will end up being a great Kuwaiti brand that I will always remember just like Hungry Bunny and Pizza Italia.
54 replies on “I ♥ Wataniya Airways”
I was so sad to know when my agent broke the bad news 🙁 they are very very very good!
When did they stop…? I liked their service
Sad my ass! I am freakin’ pissed. They closed down without any informing any of their ‘guests’ holding tickets that they were shutting down. I learnt from here that they were shutting down. They offer no alternate routes, and vague references of claims.
Total bullshit! Worst airline ever!
Mark, having worked with Wataniya for its branding seems quite fond of the airline. I must note that Mark could’ve simply deleted my comment to affirm his views of the organization. I standby my frustration with Wataniya, but commend Mark for upholding the standards he expects from the likes of Benihana.
Kudos Mark!
They had a message for ticket holders on twitter I think. You can still use your ticket with Kuwait Airways or MEA. Something like that.
Oh wait. Jazeera, not MEA, that makes more sense lol
Very sad indeed!
But why are they shutting down? weren’t they doing so well?
From their website:
“given the current financial situation of the company and the lack of fair trade requirements in the local market, as well as the difficult political and security situation in the region, the Board has decided to cease all Wataniya Airways operations with the return of its last scheduled flight to Kuwait tonight, March 16th 2011.”
https://www.wataniyaairways.com/EN/Pages/announcement.aspx
Also, in Late 2010, they cancelled service to 4 cities:
https://www.centreforaviation.com/news/share-market/2010/11/30/wataniya-airways-cancels-services-to-four-cities-comair-increases-services/page1
Mark check this out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xjSRQRYNKo
Wataniya Telecom copied your Wataniya Airways commercial ROFL
This was fan made commercial part for wataniya national day competition, smartass.
And it rocks.
It’s a sad day indeed. Unfortunately, they didn’t take any professional feedback. If I may elaborate: they chose some weird sets of destinations for GCC and middle east countries, no problem. Then they didn’t go to south-west asia (i.e. Indian, Pakistan). They decided to invade Europe. That was the lamest choice of business ever made. They really ventured on the wrong feet, meanwhile cutting down on the regular routes such as Bahrain (popular on a daily/weekly basis for students) and kept the Istanbul/Vienna Lines. I really enjoyed the first new premium young airlines in Kuwait with full frequent flyer program, but they just chose the wrong steps to run an airline business. I hope they can recover from it.
Totally agree
I can nail it down for you real quick:
1- It faced an identity crisis not being able to position itself in the market well. Is it a low fare carier or a premium full service carrier ? It wasn’t cheap but couldn’t beat world class airlines such as Emirates, Etihad, Qatar in its entirety.
2- It was competing on the wrong segments that are already saturated rather than the ones that aren’t
3- They added new destinations that didn’t make any sense: Vienna
4- They chose a seperate terminal which makes connecting flights on other airlines a nightmare
5- Bad decisions all along
1: High salaries
2: Very expensive fitted A320
3: Very low number of seats in plane.The lowest in the world actually. Less seats means its costing you more money per seat per voyage.
4: Wrong plane. You cant fly a small plane on long flights to Europe. Due to the small size, you are limited on the extra options you can add on the plane. Its a long list.
5: Different terminal so passengers were unable to connect to different airlines.
6: expensive tickets
7: Poor management
Thats pretty much it.
oh and one awful stupid business decision of them: WTF was that BusinessFirst class they made up? I mean there was only the Business class they had, but they had to create a new class to hike up the awful prices to endless limits? can you believe when I checked for tickets that KWI-BAH-KWI Business class (used to buy for 90 KDS on Wataniya/Gulf Air) hiked up after this new class to almost 200+ Kds!!
Actually just to correct you here, they never had a business class. It was always First Class and Premium Economy. Their First Class prices were similar to Business Class prices on competing airlines. For example MEA with Beirut Business Class was same price or more expensive than First Class to Beirut via WA.
The reason they changed the name from First Class to Business First is so they can get new business. Most companies are allowed to send their employees on Business Class. Even though their First Class costs as much as Business Class on other airlines, companies can’t send employees First Class because it’s against policy and if auditors read First Class tickets… it’s just complicated. Anyway they renamed the class to BusinessFirst so that companies can start sending their employees with them.
Prices didn’t get affected.
If we are to speak our opinions freely then I will speak whats on my mind… I haven’t been paid by Wataniya so my feelings towards it are from a customer rather than someone who gained from them anything in anyway whatsoever.
Wataniya airways did not introduce anything good to the local customers. If anything it worked on increasing the price of tickets market. Wataniya airways did not present itself to me as a good airline but rather it presented it self as a ‘cool’ airline with luxurious services that we’ll have to pay a good premium to enjoy their service.
More importantly, Wataniya Airways has always been known to come not to stay, but rather establish the company that would buy Kuwait Airways once the inflectional people make that possible… which just happened couple of weeks ago.
No surprises here..
they should have brought down the price for first few yeas,so that the people get an experience of flying with wataniya airlines.they should have advertised more in other countries
They just announced on twitter that Kuwait Airways and Jazeera will honor Wataniya Airways travel vouchers for stranded passengers.
Thanks, here’s the tweet:
“Our friends at Jazeera & Kuwait Airways offered 2 fly bck our stranded passengers if they present tkt proof & upon seat availability”
https://twitter.com/WataniyaAirways/status/48110444300345344
hehe,they both are trying to get goodwill
They closed down after less than 3 years of operation??!!! wow, guess they will become a classic case study example of poor management decisions in Business schools all over the world.
Why are they shutting down? What can be done to resolve their crisis? I never flew on it, I was hoping to!!! What will be replaced by it, will some other company take-over what exactly is happening MARK???
I can offer an opinion. They wanted to launch a premium carrier targeting affluent travelers who want private, luxury service. Unfortunately the combination of the economic crisis, stiff competition from other LCC (low cost carriers), and subsidizies given to the public airlines meant they could not compete. So to cut their losses, the company decided to shut down.
I flew with them once to Bahrain and although they provided lots of perks (biggest being a private terminal), I didn’t personally get a lot of “premium” feel. However for me the benefit of a private terminal was enough to justify the price difference. I guess they needed more people to feel the sane way.
I knew they were in trouble when they started a service to Austria (why Austria? Maybe someone there really liked The Sound of Music?). To me it didn’t make sense as most international traffic is to western Europe. A nice option would have been flights into London City or Luton.
Anyway I guess now they will go into liquidation and rumors are that the may bid for the operating rights to Kuwait Airways.
As realist said, they got lost between trying to be an economy airline and being a premium/luxury one.
I remember hearing that the original business plan was for Wataniya Airways to offer the luxury that Kuwait Airways was lacking…But the economic crisis and the time of the launch “forced” them to go the economy route…
I never flew it…really wanted to try the new terminal…
One thing I am sorry for, is that Jazeera won’t have much of a competition anymore, so it might hike the prices some more.
Al Jazeera still has tough competition: Air Arabia and Fly Dubai.
Not for people flying to Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria….
Wataniya & Jazeera should Merge then get finance to buy Kuwait Airways, and the government should retreat from Open Skies treaty, you cannot compete with state owned Airlines in the gulf, Like Ku, EK,QR,GF,etc… why? because they don’t care about profit! its a service the country offers! or Jazeera Airways is next and no one will buy Kuwait Airways because its unfeasible!!! What a shame 🙁
RIP Wataniya 🙁
I loved Wataniya Airways and I’m so sad that it is over! :/
The biggest reason for the shutdown in my opinion was the timing of launch (late 2008) economy crisis anyone?
When I lived in Kwt, I used Wataniya alot flying to Dubai, Bahrain and Beirut.
I thought the prices were good, the service excellent, in fact a few times I even paid to upgrade to business first out of my own pocket on return journeys (from beirut not bahrain!!).
Unfortunately I think they tried to expand to quickly, rather than building a core following on certain routes, which would have enabled them to expand slower.
Also as someone else mentioned the routes they chose were poor. Rather than flying to Europe expansion should have been towards Asia. Kuwait is crying out for a direct flight to say Bangkok or Singapore.
I loved the separate terminal and loved the novelty of sending sms’ from 36,000 feet so i will be sad to see them go.
Another example of Kuwait failing on the big stage I am afraid.
it’s also terrible for the employees – they officially knew at 8:55 pm and while most of them were on the job, people in the next room were closing flights !! the employees don’t even know what their future is, or whether they will get their indemnities – all indemnities were on hold until a decision was made, and now that a decision is made, what next?? i expect more trouble ahead and too bad for wataniya, i loved the product.
I was sad reading this post Mark till I read the last 5 words – that really cracked me up.
I love how everyone says they will miss it..and they are the best airline blah blah blah. Honestly i think most people have only flew once or twice, but found the prices too high and terminal too far. Also people loved to say they fly with them for the ‘image’ and were maybe embarased to say if they flew with Kuwait Airways or Jazeera airways…you know who you are. Wrong product, poor communication and worst timing to launch the airline. Wataniya will go down in hiostory as a big white elephant!
so true!
So sad 🙁
Noooooooooo!!!
*faint*
this really is awful news, I can’t believe they closed down! I feel some what guilty for not traveling much the passed year 🙁
Please come back Wataniya airways! Please!
now you know why airline service declines drastically after a few years … the company must either continue to lose money or cut corners as you see on Emirates and other large carriers .. it’s the nature of the business I’m afraid
sorry but i’m a fan of kuwait airways
they had the best first class lounge in kuwait ever!
Mark, you forgot to add to that list Blue Belt Video Company.
Hungry Bunny, Pizza Italia or Kuwait Airways!
Perhaps, if they had focussed a litle bit more on the Indian routes and lessened their exposure to a predominantly Caucasian top line management, they still could have stayed afloat; their exposure to Egypt and Bahrein regardless.
Well I thought it was kind of weird that they stopped flying to Bahrain a while back. It’s a shame for such nice accomidations. Jazeera could be that way in the future if they keep up with their ridiculous prices. We flew to Bahrain for my wifes birthday and bought our tickets at the advertised price about a week before. that same day I checked the happy hour price and it was higher! what kind of crap is that? instead of a discounted price they raise it by KD6 a head. Shouldn’t be the opposite? Well lets hope the airline prices don’t go up anytime soon, because we are planning to go to Maldives this year.
Regarding why Vienna. The reason why Vienna became a destination is so that they could fly to other places around Europe kinda like for example if you were to fly to London from Kuwait via Lufthansa. You would go Kuwait > Frankfurt > London.
The furthest their planes could fly to was Vienna so they made a deal with Vienna airlines where you could fly to London for example with Wataniya Airways via Vienna. You would fly in a WA plane from Kuwait to Vienna and then in Vienna change to a Vienna Air plane and fly to London. It was a great way to add new destinations without having to buy a more expensive larger plane.
Still,,they did choose a wrong business plan whn it comes to routes.First they shud’ve focused on the more nearer and frequently flown routes.Nt cuz it has gone bust nw,.I always had this feeling abt WA, that its gona go bust.hmm
let me correct something here: it’s Austrian Airlines, not Vienna airlines that sounded funny. For having this option, it’s called code-share and it did cost them more than 4000 KDs monthly to have this code-share with Austrian Airlines. The pick was very wrong, since it’s usually later on in the age of airlines to get code-share routes with other airlines. Qatar, Etihad and Emirates didn’t get code-shares until they established themselves globally.
Actually, if we look at it a step further and from a different perspective or angle, Kuwait Airways is privatizing and it has been already announced in the papers. Therefore, Kuwait Airways as a privatized organization can acquire Wataniya Airways, and even perhaps Jazeera Airways soon. So it’s just a business game for Kuwait Airways to offer different brand extensions. At the end of the day, most of Wataniya Airways staff were ex-Kuwait Airways staff. With Kuwait Airways’ acquisition of Wataniya, and even perhaps Jazeera, the new organization will follow Lufthansa’s acquisition strategy and turn into an airline conglomerate.
As for branding, Mark, I think it was a great job well done. Besides a brand with a strong base and loyal customers will stand back again. 🙂
I have never flown Wataniya Airways, and honestly don’t quite care for the airline going bust. However what bothers me is the unprofessional way in which the employees are being treated, I have friends working at WA and they have informed me that, leave aside getting their indemnity, they have not yet received last months salaries. What has made the situation worse is that all the so called ‘White Skin’ & Top brass’ have got their dues and left. Now if this were really true….then this truly SUCKS!
i had a flight booked with them from london to kuwait via vienna in april , and as sad as i am to see a great airline go bust, im soo pissed cuz they arent compensating for the people who booked connecting flights with them via vienna.
i have a to way ticket kwt bey kwt on may, what will happen to my ticket, refund? cancel? o what
i should know asap cause i should be in lebanon in may
The only saving grace when they folded is they had had a purpose built terminal built for them. In the coming weeks and months, it will be maha-interesting to see what becomes of it. Is it bequeathed to Kuwait Airways for their first and business class passengers (not an entirely bad deal), or better still turned into a Jazeera Airways only terminal?
But no, we certainly wouldn’t want it to go down the Pearl Monument way!
It’s sad – Wataniya airways was a truly good airline and was EXCELLENT and truly exceptional from a service level point of view – not 5 star but 7 stars.
The crisis was unfortunate and they dropped their their prices meaning passengers were from all backgrounds – but they maintained service levels.
I was so sad about this news but I heard that they will be partnering with Kuwait Airways – let’s hope Kuwait airways can keep up that standard.
I am mainly sad for the staff of Wataniya airways who lost their jobs literally overnight and will not receive their salaries. Sad end to a ‘golden era’.
For those worried about their tickets – wataniya put ads in the papers and mentioned how to make claims on their website.
It is sad that they closed up, but that is not a simple issue. The company has to pay it’s customers who paid money for tickets, as well as the salaries of employees, and even Suppliers. The govt regulators should come up to protect the interests of those who have to be given money.