Dubai: After nearly a decade of sanctions, civilian flights to Baghdad will soon
resume making the tortuous eight-hour journey by road from Amman to the Iraqi
capital a thing of the past as soon as some sort of proper governance is put in
place in Iraq, travel sources said.
The British Airways which had been flying to Iraq for more than 60 years before the
1991 Gulf war, is already in talks with the UK government to resume flights from
London to the Iraqi capital that were stopped 13 years ago because of sanctions.
It was announced in Manama on April 22 that The Gulf Air, a consortium of Gulf Arab
states, is set to resume flights to Baghdad once clearance and flight schedules are
finalised.
Gulf Air officials said, earlier agreements between Iraq and the airlines were still
valid but new schedules have to be worked out for flights to Saddam International
Airport which has been now renamed as Baghdad International Airport.
Gulf Air with its most comprehensive destination network in the Gulf, will also be
able to play a significant role in reuniting the estimated six million Iraqis, who
have been living outside the country, with their families, the officials said.
Other regional airlines, including Emirates and Qatar Airways were all waiting for
normality to return to Baghdad to start new services. Baghdad airport has to be
modernised after years of neglect from sanctions to be able to take any reasonable
amount of traffic, travel sources said.
PTI
