Hi Echie and RavenLuLu,
I have now heard from someone with a little inside knowledge on this.
Bottom line is, as perhaps we expected, that it seems that KAC are battenning down the hatches prior to privitisation, due for March 2011. They are trying to offload the "deadweight" personnel as fast as they can, and trying to push "voluntary redundancies" on as many people as they can, mostly those over 55.
It is happening in pretty much all sectors. Furthermore, KAC has a long history of "creating" positions for political reasons and greasing certain wheels by offering employment to people as "figure-heads" - mostly Kuwaiti Nationals - and paying them offensively large salaries. Now, they have the difficult situation of trying to offload these freeloaders without offending the network they have made of influencial people.
Perhaps they will restart mid-2011 recruiting, once they go private and restructure.
I wrote to the recruitment hosting company, DDI, to see what was going on - no reply yet. I will update if anything changes.
Would be nice to hear from some people actually AT Kuwait Airways Co on this matter?
Best to all...
SJ