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Egypt to Re-open Regular Flights to Baghdad
Egypt has decided to operate a weekly regular flight between Cairo and Baghdad after the current Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Egypt's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said on Wednesday, December 13.
The flights, which will be run by EgyptAir, Egypt's national carrier, is to become the first service between the two Arab capitals since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Egypt's Middle East News Agency reported.
Egypt has received a one-year permission from Jordan for Egyptian planes to fly to and from Iraq via the kingdom's airspace, CAA officials said.
They added that Egypt was contacting the United Nations Sanctions Committee for approval.
The committee's permission has been insisted by the United States and Britain, which enforced two no-fly zones in Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War driving Iraqi troops out of Kuwait, as necessary for any flights to and from Iraq.
But the CAA officials said their step follows a number of countries, which have already operated flights to Baghdad, because the U.N. Security Council resolutions related to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait do not prohibit civil flights to the Iraqi capital.
Egypt and Iraq, which cut off diplomatic relations in 1991 after Egypt joined the Gulf War, restored the ties last month.
The two countries have been making efforts to expand trade. Since the U.N. allowed Iraq to sell oil to buy humanitarian goods in 1996, Egypt has become one of the largest exporters to Iraq in the world.
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