ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq-Iran flights are set to resume on Sunday after a suspension lasting several days, although Iraq says an aviation fuel shortage could limit the number of flights that operate.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported Saturday that Abuzar Shiroudi, head of the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization, announced the resumption of flights between the two countries starting Sunday.
“Flights with Iraq will resume starting tomorrow, via Iranian and Iraqi airlines,” Shiroudi said.
Najaf International Airport also announced a number of Iranian flights would resume on Sunday, saying the volume of flights is expected to increase gradually in the coming days according to airlines’ schedules.
Najaf is home to major Shiite Muslim shrines and receives millions of pilgrims from around the world, particularly Iran.
The announcement came hours after Iraq’s Ministry of Transport said an aviation fuel shortage remained the main obstacle to implementing the government’s decision to resume flights between the two neighboring countries.
Hussein Ahmed, director of media and relations at the Iraqi Ministry of Transport, told Rudaw's Gashaw Khalid on Saturday that the ministry's Crisis Committee was in a meeting to discuss the procedures for resuming flights, adding that the most important point of the meeting was "the issue of providing aviation fuel for the planes.”
Ahmed said the planned 40 daily flights exceed Iraq’s current operational capacity.
“The 40 flights that were announced are beyond Iraq’s technical capabilities because there is an aviation fuel crunch,” he said, adding that “currently, only 20 Iraqi Airways planes are available to operate the flights.”
Before the suspension, around 18 flights operated daily between Najaf Airport and Iran. Three Iranian airlines currently operate flights on the route, with lower fuel prices making operations more economical for them.
Najaf Airport itself does not face the ground-handling constraints affecting some other Iraqi airports, according to its officials.
“Najaf Airport does not have the problem of those two companies, because Menzies and NAS do not operate there, and the airport administration itself organizes the ground handling affairs,” Ammar al-Tufaili, director of media at Najaf Airport, told Rudaw.
The comments refer to Menzies Aviation and National Aviation Services (NAS), which suspended ground-handling operations for Iranian aircraft on September 22 following US sanctions targeting Iran’s aviation sector.
Iraq announced on Friday that it had secured a US sanctions waiver allowing Iranian carriers to operate up to 40 flights to and from Najaf International Airport per day, excluding Mahan Air, a week after flights were suspended.
The resumption is intended in part to facilitate the movement of tourists and pilgrims between Iraq and Iran. The flights had been suspended following US Treasury sanctions on Iran’s aviation sector.
Commercial flights between Iran and Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region, were suspended last week as Iraqi airports moved to comply with tightened US sanctions targeting Tehran’s aviation sector.
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