Baghdad greets first passenger flight from Europe in 18 years

The first passenger flight from Europe in 18 years landed at Baghdad airport on Friday, when a Swedish charter aircraft touched down. The Nordic Leisure airliner brought in 150 people, most of them Iraqis, resuming air links between Iraq and Europe for the first time since the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iraq after Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.More international flights were expected in the next two days, including one from Hong Kong, Iraqi Transport Minister Amer Abduljabbar Ismail told reporters at the airport.

The pilot waved the Swedish flag as he was bringing the MD-83 (McDonnell Douglas) plane to halt on the tarmac of Baghdad’s international airport.

“I am very pleased and happy because now there are direct flights… it will it will save us time. Before we had to travel to either Syria or Jordan” to catch flights for Europe, said an Iraqi, Mohammed Amir.

On Tuesday, Air France-KLM and Iraq’s transport ministry signed a preliminary accord which will see Iraqi Airways taking off for European destinations and Baghdad airport being renovated.

In the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, state-owned Iraqi Airways was hit hard by U.N. sanctions imposed against Iraq and its service declined rapidly.

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