State-owned Kuwait Airways will be privatised by the end of March, the chairman of the Gulf carrier was quoted as saying in a Kuwait newspaper on Wednesday.

Hamad al-Falah told Arabic language daily An Nahar that 'the transformation procedures are in the final stages.'

Last August, Kuwait appointed Citigroup, Ernst & Young and aviation services firm Seabury to handle the privatisation of its national carrier.

Kuwait's parliament approved a plan in 2008 to privatise loss-making Kuwait Airways Corp. Under the plan, the government will sell 40 per cent of the flag carrier to the public and 35 per cent to a long-term investor. The airline has a fleet of 17 planes.

Falah also told the newspaper that its fleet of five Airbus A300 jets, grounded last month for inspection, were back in service.-Reuters