UPDATE: Decree-Law No. 77 of 2026 Gazetted, Converting Kuwait Airways Into a Wholly State-Owned Shareholding Company

Decree-Law No. 77 of 2026 was issued on 28 July 2026 and published in Kuwait Al-Youm, Supplement to Issue 1801, dated 29 July 2026. Under Article 11 it takes effect from the date of publication. Proposed by the Minister of State for Economic Affairs and Investment, it completes the step WEFAQ reported on 20 July 2026.

Article 1 makes Kuwait Airways Company a Kuwaiti shareholding company wholly owned by the State, carrying on business under its memorandum and articles of association and Companies Law No. 1 of 2016. State ownership of the whole share capital remains direct, and no disposal in any form is permitted without Council of Ministers approval. Article 2 vests the powers of the ordinary and extraordinary general assembly in the Board of Directors of the Kuwait Investment Authority.

Article 3 allows the board, whose members that general assembly selects, to issue the administrative, financial, staff, tender, auction and procurement regulations without being bound by Decree-Law No. 105 of 1980 on the State Property System or Public Tenders Law No. 49 of 2016. Article 6 disapplies Competition Law No. 72 of 2020 to the company's activities. Article 7 confines the Audit Bureau to studying and commenting on the auditor's reports and financial statements. Article 10 repeals Law No. 6 of 2008 and any conflicting provision.

WEFAQ's view: this is corporatisation completed, not privatisation, and the same legal person continues: Article 8 requires the company's status and constitutive documents to be conformed, not assets transferred. Counterparties should still check consent and notification clauses, and note that the carrier now sits outside both the public tendering and competition regimes.

Read more: for the full analysis, read our companion blog article: “Kuwait Airways Under Decree-Law No. 77: Outside Public Tenders, Outside Competition Law”.