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ARBIL, Iraq, July 21 (AFP) - 20h09 - The first
flight of a Kurdish-owned airline landed in the
northern Iraqi city of Arbil on Thursday, linking
one of the main cities in the heart of Kurdistan to
Dubai.
The sole airplane belonging to the nascent Kurdistan
Airlines, a Boeing 737, landed at 10:30 am (0630
GMT) carrying 46 Iraqi and Kurdish businessmen.
The Arbil airport was officially inaugurated on
April 15. Another airport equipped for passenger
planes in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah opened
for business on Wednesday.
The recently-created Kurdistan Airlines is entirely
owned by the autonomous Kurdish regional government,
said Rachad Omar, the region's "vice-minister" of
transport and communications.
"It has full support from the civil aviation
directorate," a branch of the Iraqi ministry of
transportation, Omar told AFP.
"It is an Iraqi-owned company just like
(government-owned) Iraqi Airways," said Omar, adding
that the company plans to hire more passenger
airplanes for flights to Europe.
Currently both Iraqi Airlines and a Lebanese
airline, Flying Carpet, offer flights between
Baghdad and Arbil.
"It is an historic day because it is the first time
there is a direct flight linking a foreign country
to Arbil airport," said Haidar Faili, the autonomous
Kurdish region's minister for transportation and
communication.
On Wednesday Iraqi President Jalal Talbani, who is
also the head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK),
inaugurated Sulaimaniyah airport, located some 200
kilometers (120 miles) from Arbil.
An Iraqi Airways plane landed at the airport
bringing home an official Iraqi delegation from a
visit to Jordan that included Planning Minister
Barham Saleh.
There are two passenger airports in the autonomous
Kurdish region because of the rivalry between the
two main Kurdish parties.
AFP
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