Lufthansa may resume flights to Baghdad after 20 Years

News added by AdeelMinhas under Airline News

Europe’s second-largest airline, may resume flights to Baghdad after 20 years as economic-growth prospects boost air-travel demand.The carrier has applied for traffic rights to serve the Iraqi capital and northern city of Erbil, and is looking at how to ensure smooth operations including flight security, said Boris Ogursky, a spokesman at Lufthansa’s main hub in Frankfurt.

“The demand goes in both directions,” and the airline aims to start service in mid-2010, Ogursky said, adding that it’s too early to specify a number of flights. The Iraq destinations would be served from Frankfurt and Munich.

The carrier, which began flying to Baghdad in 1956, said in a statement that it halted flights in 1990 because of the Gulf War, when U.S.-led forces reversed Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Lufthansa was flying twice weekly to Baghdad with twin-aisle Airbus SAS A310s when the route was dropped, Ogursky said.

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