Kuwait Airways said on Thursday that it would suspend nine flights from India and reschedule existing flights to cope with a drastic fall in passenger traffic following the war in Iraq.

The airline would cancel six weekly flights from Delhi against the present seven and all three weekly flights from Chennai to Kuwait from March 29 to April 11, 2003, its senior regional director (Indian sub-continent) Abdulnasser Bahrami said.

Besides, timings of seven weekly flights from Mumbai, four from Trivandrum and three flights from Cochin would be changed effective from March 29, he said.

"We are suspending these flights as the passenger load factor is very low at only 10 per cent for flights out of India. We will review our decision after April 10, 2003," Bahrami said.

The airline has also imposed a war surcharge of $25 per flight coupon from March 24, 2003 due to the hike in insurance surcharge for all flights to Kuwait, he said.

He said the existing flights from India might also be cancelled if the present poor passenger traffic scenario continued for a long time.