Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadia has reopened airports in the autonomous region of Kurdistan to scheduled international traffic as of Thursday, March 15.
The move comes after Kurdish authorities agreed to place airports at Erbil and Sulaymaniyah under the direct supervision of the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Both airfields have been restricted to domestic flights since September 29, 2017, when the Iraqi central government retaliated against Kurdish authorities for proceeding with an independence referendum.
Aside from the previously announced Umrah charters to Jeddah International, Saudi Arabia, flydubai (FZ, Dubai International) and Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna) have already confirmed their respective returns to Kurdistan from March 19 onwards. Royal Jordanian (RJ, Amman Queen Alia) will follow suit on April 1. Saudi Arabia's flynas (XY, Riyadh) has also been linked to Erbil services. Further service resumptions are expected to be announced in due course.
