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BAGHDAD - If there’s one business that’s quite
literally taking off in Iraq right now, it’s air
travel, with more and more Iraqis lining up to get
out of their troubled land, either for a break or
forever.
Since resuming flights a year ago after being
grounded for 14 years by sanctions, Iraqi Airways
now operates 20 flights a week to destinations like
Amman, Damascus, Istanbul and Dubai.
Many are fully booked, producing a hectic scramble
at Baghdad airport when the gate is called, as
desperate passengers clamber over one another to get
to the front of the line.
Routes to Beirut, Cairo, Saudi Arabia and Iran are
expected to begin in the coming weeks, and a flight
to London from Basra or Baghdad is on the cards for
late September or October.
“The expansion is going very well,” Captain Ali Al
Bayaa, chief executive of the airline and a former
pilot, said yesterday as he oversaw operations at
Baghdad’s airport, possibly the most heavily
defended airfield in the world.
“We should have a flight starting to Cairo in the
next 10 days, which will be very popular,” he said.
For 18 months after Saddam Hussein was toppled, the
country remained too dangerous for commercial
airlines, with insurgents occasionally firing
shoulder-fired missiles at aircraft.
Then Royal Jordanian began a regular service to and
from Amman, employing South African pilots and air
crew to fly the route, which involves a dizzyingly
tight spiral take-off and landing in Baghdad to
avoid the threat of rocket attack.
Now, two and a half years after Saddam’s fall, there
are half a dozen airlines jetting in and out of
Baghdad, supplying a rapidly growing demand for air
travel. At the same time, travel agencies are
opening up again after years of inactivity.
As well as Iraqi Airways and Royal Jordanian, little
known carriers including Tigris Air, Jupiter, Orbit,
Ishtar, Flying Carpet and Kurdistan Airways have
sprung up.
While some travellers might have reservations about
flying an airline called Flying Carpet, it doesn’t
seem to bother most Iraqis, particularly those
looking for a cheap way out.
Violence and insecurity have driven thousands of
families to despair, prompting those that can afford
it to leave, at least until the situation settles
down -- or maybe longer. For $300 they can overfly
Iraq’s bandit lands to safety abroad.
Large Iraqi expatriate communities have sprung up in
Amman, Damascus, the United Arab Emirates and Cairo,
where the Heliopolis district has been dubbed
“Little Baghdad” by some.
As well as exiles, those that want to escape Iraq’s
summer heat, when the temperatures soar above 40
Celsius, are also boosting activity, as are business
travellers.
In Baghdad and in the northern cities of Arbil and
Sulaimaniya, which have avoided most of the chaos
affecting the rest of the country, travel agencies
are opening their doors.
Laru Travel, with offices in Baghdad, Arbil, Cyprus
and Jordan, calls itself Iraq’s first professional
travel agency. Chief Executive Lana Qassim says
business is going well. “I really didn’t expect we’d
be dealing with so many requests so soon,” she said
in her office in Arbil recently.
Reuters
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