ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Although it was announced on Wednesday that the Kurdistan Region's Erbil and Sulaimani airports have officially reopened for international flights, business continued as usual on Thursday with passengers arriving and departing from Kurdistan on domestic flights alone.
One American approached Rudaw English at the Erbil airport to inquire when flights would resume, saying he and his colleagues have been "stuck" in Kurdistan for nearly a year now as they do not wish to travel through Baghdad or Turkey to return to America. He spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"Iraq's aviation authority has issued a NOTAM [notice to airmen] for the resumption of international flights to Erbil and Sulaimani airports," Talar Faiq, director general of Erbil International Airport, told Rudaw on Wednesday evening.
Baghdad is not expected to send technical teams to Erbil and Sulaimani until Sunday and the Iraqi interior ministry will control the flight schedule.
"The technical sides from Sunday onward will come to the airports and start working under the [Iraqi] Civil Aviation Authority," Bestun Zangana, the head of the Transportation Committee in the Iraqi parliament, said in Erbil on Wednesday.
The KRG and Baghdad reached an agreement on Tuesday conditional on federal authority being imposed in the airports in Sulaimani and Erbil. The conditions include a number of technical measures regarding the exchange of information, visa authority, uniforms for security personnel in the airport, and a joint committee.
The only international flight showing on the Erbil International Airport schedule Thursday morning was a flight leaving for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday afternoon.
"Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi gave consent for airplanes carrying [those who do] Umrah to take off and land at the Erbil and Sulaimani international airports," the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority announced in an official letter mid-February.
In February, Iraq extended the international flight ban until May 31.
The last international flight to leave the Kurdistan Region was on September 29, 2017. The closure of the Sulaimani and Erbil airports to international travel was seen as a punitive measure taken by Abadi following the September 25 independence referendum in the Kurdistan Region.
