Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways Group has recorded a net profit of KD1.1m ($4m) for the first quarter of 2011, the best first quarter performance since the company began.

This was an increase on the KD4.5m net loss recorded in the first quarter of 2010. It was also the third consecutive quarterly profit, as it registered KD4.4m and KD2m for the third and fourth quarter of 2010 respectively.

“Our outlook for the second half of the year remains unchanged,” says Marwan Boodai, chairman of Jazeera Airways Group. “However, we have upgraded our second quarter outlook from slow to mild as we welcome the inclusion of Cairo into our network starting from 18 May

In May 2010, the group implemented a turn-around plan that was designed to realign the business with the market and bring the company back to profitability (MEED 16:2:10).

The plan involved asset redeployment, staff reductions, cost management, network and market realignment and enhanced commercial offering.

The airline was established in 2005 and is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange.