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Long weekend in Baghdad? Iraqi Airlines to relaunch flight services to London Gatwick
By Chris Leadbeater
PUBLISHED: 14:02 EST, 18 February 2013 | UPDATED: 14:02 EST, 18 February 2013
It
has been a long time since Baghdad featured highly on the average
traveller’s list of must-see destinations. But as of next month, the
Iraqi capital will be a little more accessible for the intrepid flyer,
with Iraqi Airways restoring air services to the UK.
It has been
23 years since there was a regular flight link between London and Iraq,
with connections being severed in August 1990, at the outbreak of the
1990-1991 Gulf War.
Iraqi Aiirways
Back on the airwaves: Iraqi Aiirways is recommencing services to London next month
However, from 5 March onwards, Iraq’s national carrier will fly three times a week between Gatwick and Baghdad.
A further flight will head out once a week from Gatwick to the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya, in the north-east of Iraq.
If
the relaunch of services to the UK is successful, Iraqi Airways will
expand its operations, with an increase in frequency to six flights a
week penciled in for 15 June.
Somewhat inconveniently, all flights will go via Malmo in Sweden.
This
is partly to allow security checks to be carried out before the flights
enter UK air space, and partly because Sweden has a sizeable expatriate
population.
Flights to Baghdad, using Airbus A330 aircraft, will take just under six hours.
Initially,
tickets will be sold via London-based travel agency IKB Travel (020
7724 8455; youshouldtravel.com), with return fares starting at £470 in
economy and £1400 for business class.
IKB general manager Saad Alkhafaji believes the service will be a success, and says that 200 tickets have already been sold.
‘The Iraqi community is big here, and there are also students,’ he told the travel industry publication Travel Trade Gazette.
‘We have also had interest from companies like BP and G4S.’
This is the second attempt to reconnect London and Baghdad in the last three years.
The
Iraqi Airways fleet had been grounded by United Nations sanctions
against the country in 1990, in the wake of the Saddam Hussein-led
invasion of Kuwait.
Flights were almost non-existent during the
Nineties. But in the wake of the Iraq War of 2003 and the toppling of
Saddam Hussein, a limited service between Baghdad and the Jordanian
capital Amman began in October 2004.
Domestic services between Baghdad and the southerly Iraqi city of Basra recommenced in 2005.
However,
attempts to return to London were thwarted in 2010 when a US$1.2billion
(£775,000) lawsuit from Kuwait Airways – a demand for compensation
following on from the 1990 invasion and the alleged theft of ten
aircraft and spare parts from Kuwait International Airport – left the
airline in a legal quandary.
The new flights also mark Iraq’s quiet but continued emergence in the wake of 20 years of war and isolation.
In
2010, French travel company Terre Entiere announced a new tour that
would venture to the south of the Middle Eastern state, including the
archaeological site of Ur – a ‘lost’ Sumerian city thought to be the
birthplace of the biblical Abraham.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2280648/Flights-Baghdad-Iraqi-Airlines-restore-air-services-London-Gatwick.html
By Chris Leadbeater
PUBLISHED: 14:02 EST, 18 February 2013 | UPDATED: 14:02 EST, 18 February 2013
It
has been a long time since Baghdad featured highly on the average
traveller’s list of must-see destinations. But as of next month, the
Iraqi capital will be a little more accessible for the intrepid flyer,
with Iraqi Airways restoring air services to the UK.
It has been
23 years since there was a regular flight link between London and Iraq,
with connections being severed in August 1990, at the outbreak of the
1990-1991 Gulf War.
Iraqi Aiirways
Back on the airwaves: Iraqi Aiirways is recommencing services to London next month
However, from 5 March onwards, Iraq’s national carrier will fly three times a week between Gatwick and Baghdad.
A further flight will head out once a week from Gatwick to the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya, in the north-east of Iraq.
If
the relaunch of services to the UK is successful, Iraqi Airways will
expand its operations, with an increase in frequency to six flights a
week penciled in for 15 June.
Somewhat inconveniently, all flights will go via Malmo in Sweden.
This
is partly to allow security checks to be carried out before the flights
enter UK air space, and partly because Sweden has a sizeable expatriate
population.
Flights to Baghdad, using Airbus A330 aircraft, will take just under six hours.
Initially,
tickets will be sold via London-based travel agency IKB Travel (020
7724 8455; youshouldtravel.com), with return fares starting at £470 in
economy and £1400 for business class.
IKB general manager Saad Alkhafaji believes the service will be a success, and says that 200 tickets have already been sold.
‘The Iraqi community is big here, and there are also students,’ he told the travel industry publication Travel Trade Gazette.
‘We have also had interest from companies like BP and G4S.’
This is the second attempt to reconnect London and Baghdad in the last three years.
The
Iraqi Airways fleet had been grounded by United Nations sanctions
against the country in 1990, in the wake of the Saddam Hussein-led
invasion of Kuwait.
Flights were almost non-existent during the
Nineties. But in the wake of the Iraq War of 2003 and the toppling of
Saddam Hussein, a limited service between Baghdad and the Jordanian
capital Amman began in October 2004.
Domestic services between Baghdad and the southerly Iraqi city of Basra recommenced in 2005.
However,
attempts to return to London were thwarted in 2010 when a US$1.2billion
(£775,000) lawsuit from Kuwait Airways – a demand for compensation
following on from the 1990 invasion and the alleged theft of ten
aircraft and spare parts from Kuwait International Airport – left the
airline in a legal quandary.
The new flights also mark Iraq’s quiet but continued emergence in the wake of 20 years of war and isolation.
In
2010, French travel company Terre Entiere announced a new tour that
would venture to the south of the Middle Eastern state, including the
archaeological site of Ur – a ‘lost’ Sumerian city thought to be the
birthplace of the biblical Abraham.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2280648/Flights-Baghdad-Iraqi-Airlines-restore-air-services-London-Gatwick.html
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