The airports of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah in the autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq could face closure should the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) follow through with a threat to ban Iraqi Airways (IA, Baghdad) citing its non-payment of service charges.
The Director-General of Erbil International Airport (EIA), Talar Faiq, told the Anadolu news agency last week that the state-owned carrier owed the operator USD37 million in landing fees.
“Since the Iraqi government’s ban went into effect late September 2017, Iraqi Airways has not paid for its landings at the EIA [for flights originating from Baghdad and other Iraqi airports],” he said.
Both Erbil and Sulimanayah have been cut off from the international market since late September 2017 when the Iraqi central government imposed an embargo on foreign traffic into Kurdistan in the wake of a contentious independence referendum. As such, the facilities have been limited to domestic traffic with Iraqi Airways the main operator. With the sudden decline in revenue, the local authorities have found it difficult to justify keeping the airports open.
“It would be difficult to handle its USD2.3 million monthly expenses which include employee salaries, allowances, fuel, utilities, electricity, cleaning, and maintenance due to decreased income following the international flight ban,” Erbil Airport said in a statement.
Although Baghdad had signalled it may be willing to lift the moratorium international flights out of Kurdistan, it has since rolled over the ban for a further three months or until May 31.
"If the conditions are met, I will open [the airports] tomorrow. If the conditions are not met, they will not be opened in five years or even 10 years. I am being honest,” Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told the Kurdish Rudaw news agency.
Among the conditions Baghdad has laid down is that federal security forces maintain a presence in the airports along with the federal passports and customs authorities. In addition, Baghdad would also have overall authority over the airports.
