KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait International Airport remains open and operating Tuesday, but with significant restrictions still in place months after a series of Iranian strikes damaged the facility and forced the country to overhaul its aviation operations amid the broader regional conflict tied to the 2026 Iran war.
Passengers can still fly in and out of Kuwait, but the airport’s normal operations remain far from fully restored, with one major terminal closed for repairs, a long-anticipated new terminal still under construction, and the country’s airspace still partially restricted to overflights as of Tuesday.
Terminal by terminal: what’s open
Kuwait International Airport currently operates through two active passenger terminals. Terminal 4 serves as the base for Kuwait Airways, along with a growing number of returning international carriers, including Emirates, flydubai, Air Arabia and Oman Air. Terminal 5 remains the dedicated home for Jazeera Airways, which has continued expanding its route network even amid the broader disruptions affecting the airport.
Terminal 1, traditionally the airport’s primary international passenger facility, remains closed. The terminal briefly reopened on June 1 before sustaining damage just two days later in a June 3 strike, and it has stayed offline ever since while repair work continues. No confirmed date has been set for its reopening.
Terminal 2 still under construction, not open today
Despite periodic social media speculation, Kuwait International Airport’s long-awaited new Terminal 2 has not opened and did not open Tuesday. The $5.8 billion project, designed by the architecture firm Foster + Partners and built by Turkey’s Limak İnşaat, remains under construction, with officials targeting completion of civil works by Nov. 30, followed by systems testing and trial operations before passenger service begins in the final quarter of the year.
The sprawling 700,000-square-meter terminal, envisioned as part of Kuwait’s broader “New Kuwait 2035” economic diversification strategy, is designed to eventually handle up to 25 million passengers annually, with capacity for future expansion to 50 million. Construction on the project began in 2017, with the original target completion date of 2022 repeatedly pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions and, more recently, damage sustained during the regional conflict. Kuwait’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation has repeatedly urged the public to rely only on official channels for updates, pushing back against unverified claims of imminent reopenings.
A conflict that has repeatedly disrupted operations
The disruptions at Kuwait International Airport trace back to Feb. 28, when Iran launched a campaign of aerial attacks against the airport as part of the broader 2026 Iran war, targeting Terminal 1 and critical air traffic control infrastructure in what officials described as an effort to disrupt a facility being used as a logistics hub for coalition transport. The campaign forced a total suspension of commercial aviation in Kuwaiti airspace that stretched for more than 40 days before authorities began a phased reopening in late April.
Since then, operations have been repeatedly interrupted by renewed strikes and precautionary shutdowns. A June 3 attack caused fresh damage to the newly reopened Terminal 1, while a further round of Iranian missile and drone strikes on July 18 prompted Kuwait’s aviation authorities to reimpose broader airspace restrictions. Throughout the conflict, radar systems, fuel storage infrastructure and structural elements at the airport have all sustained damage at various points, according to regional aviation trackers monitoring the situation.
Overflights remain banned
While arrivals and departures at Kuwait International Airport have continued, Kuwait’s airspace has remained closed to overflights since the July 18 strikes, with the ban extended repeatedly and most recently set to run until at least Tuesday, according to aviation industry trackers monitoring Gulf airspace. That restriction has made Kuwait something of an outlier in the region, as neighboring Iraq, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have all reopened their airspace to overflights in some form, forcing airlines to route around Kuwaiti airspace via longer corridors through Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Oman, or further north through the Caucasus.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has advised operators to avoid the airspace of Kuwait, along with Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and parts of the Gulf of Oman, citing continued risk from the conflict. Whether Kuwait extends its overflight ban further, or begins easing restrictions as conditions stabilize, remains to be determined by the country’s aviation authorities.
What travelers should know
Passengers with flights booked through Kuwait International Airport are strongly advised to confirm their specific flight details directly with their airline given how frequently conditions have shifted throughout 2026. Travelers flying with Kuwait Airways should expect to depart from Terminal 4, while those flying with Jazeera Airways will use Terminal 5. Anyone whose itinerary was originally booked through Terminal 1 should check with their airline regarding rebooking, alternate terminal arrangements or refund options, since that facility remains offline with no confirmed reopening date.
During earlier phases of the disruption, Kuwait’s national carriers temporarily rerouted operations through Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, requiring passengers to complete lengthy bus transfers to reach their flights. While most operations have since returned to Kuwait International Airport itself, the underlying volatility means schedules can still change with little notice.
Kuwait’s aviation authorities continue to describe the current arrangement, two operating terminals, one closed for repairs and a new terminal still months from completion, as a temporary state tied directly to the broader regional conflict rather than a permanent operating model. Officials have emphasized that once Terminal 2 opens in the final quarter of the year, it will substantially expand the airport’s capacity and modernize the overall passenger experience as Kuwait works to position itself as a competitive aviation hub alongside Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi.
For now, though, the answer to whether Kuwait International Airport is open remains layered: yes, for arrivals and departures through Terminals 4 and 5, but with Terminal 1 closed, Terminal 2 still under construction, and the country’s skies remaining only partially open to the wider region as the conflict’s effects continue to ripple through Gulf aviation.
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