ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s national airline will resume flights to Europe next month, eight years after being banned from European Union airspace, an official from the transportation ministry told Rudaw on Saturday.
Iraqi Airways will start direct flights to Germany and Denmark on November 10 and will offer eight flights per week to five different cities in both countries, said Maitham al-Safi, the transportation ministry’s director of media and communication.
The ministry announced the resumption on Friday, saying the decision follows several meetings of Transportation Minister Razaq al-Saadawi with high-level European officials.
Safi said the flights will serve Baghdad, Najaf, and Erbil airports.
One of the oldest airlines in the Middle East, Iraqi Airways had been prohibited from operating in European Union airspace over safety violations since 2015. Baghdad has been trying to lift the ban since then.
In July, the transportation ministry announced that Iraqi Airways signed a contract with Boeing and Airbus to purchase 31 airplanes with the last one delivered by the end of 2027. The purchase was part of attempts to lift the European ban.
A delegation from the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA) met with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in March in Dubai to discuss procedures for lifting the ban.
Iraqi Airways has a poor reputation for poor flight standards and has been stained by public scandals. In 2020, ICAA suspended a pilot who allowed a female model into the cockpit mid-flight. In July 2018, two Iraqi pilots got into a physical fight over dinner while flying a Boeing 737 with 160 passengers on board.