KUWAIT CITY: Basra International Airport in southern Iraq opened yesterday for commercial air flights, the Kuwait News Agency reported, citing airport director Abdullrazaq Qassim.
The airport had been shut since the start of the US-led military action that brought down the Saddam Hussain government in 2003.
The first civilian aircraft to land was an Iraqi Airways plane carrying Ministry of Transport and Iraqi Airways employees, Qassim told reporters shortly after the landing.
Four flights per week were scheduled between Basra and Baghdad, he said. Flights would also resume between Basra and Amman, Jordan, via Baghdad.
Talks were being held between Iraq’s transport ministry and Gulf Air to begin flights between Basra and Gulf states, he said. – DPA
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