Iraqi Airways resumes international flights

Iraqi Airways resumed international flights for the first time since 1990 U.N. sanctions, with a plane taking off yesterday from neighboring Jordan and another landing in the Syrian capital.

The Iraqi Airways flight from Amman to Baghdad was the state airline's first international flight since the sanctions on Saddam Hussein's regime. The flight to Damascus was the first from Baghdad since 1980.

“This is the start of regular flights by Iraqi Airways,” airline spokesman Raad Aghabi told The Associated Press.

Iraqi Airways will fly once daily to Amman and Damascus, Aghabi said. Another route to the United Arab Emirates will be added to the schedule later, he said, declining to specify when.

Yesterday's Iraqi Boeing 737, flight number IA164, left Amman's Queen Alia International Airport at 8:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) bound for Baghdad Airport, Aghabi said.

He declined to say how many passengers were on board, but noted that the plane had arrived Friday evening in Amman for an overnight stop and refueling.

Round-trip airfare from Amman to Baghdad is US$750 (¤615), he said.

The ticket price for the 75-minute Amman-Baghdad flight was sharply higher compared to other routes between Amman and other Arab capitals with the same flight time, but there was no explanation why.

But Royal Wings, an affiliate of Jordan's flag carrier airline Royal Jordanian, self-insures its planes that fly to Baghdad because international insurance companies impose high war insurance fees due to war zone dangers.

In addition to Royal Wings, another airliner flies from Amman to Baghdad and one flies from Beirut, Lebanon, to the Iraqi capital.

Iraqi insurgents have taken aim at some commercial and military flights over Baghdad, firing rockets at aircraft flying to and from the airport, which also is used by the U.S. military.

To avoid rocket fire, planes are forced to make sharp maneuvers to stay within a secure perimeter over the airport and out of the range of rocket fire.

Last year, a DHL plane landed at the airport with its wing on fire from a rocket attack.

The road from the Iraqi capital to the airport witnesses almost daily attacks by Iraqi insurgents against U.S. troops and their supply convoys.

Two car bombs exploded yesterday on the highway between Baghdad airport and the Iraqi capital.

Three American soldiers were wounded in the first blast and two were killed and eight others wounded as troops traveled to the site of the earlier explosion.

In a travel warning issued yesterday, the U.S. State Department described the airport road as among Iraq's most dangerous.

Flight IA129 to Damascus arrived at 2:30 p.m. (1130 GMT).

Five cabin crewmembers, three engineers, the commercial manager of the airways and another company official were onboard the Boeing 737, said its pilot, Capt. Hussein al-Bayati.

Iraqi Airways' commercial manager, Majid al-Wadi, said that the company was planning to bring back its planes that have been grounded in Jordan, Tunisia and Iran.

He did not say how many Iraqi Airways planes exited in the three countries.

It was the first Iraqi Airways plane to travel to Syria since 1980, when the two countries severed ties over the Iraq-Iran war. Syria backed the Iranians during the 1980-88 war.

Syria, however, operated several charter flights to Baghdad in the late 1990s after its ties with Saddam's regime improved, taking passengers and humanitarian aid to Iraqis.

An Iraqi Airways official in Damascus said the airlines would operate a daily, regular flight between Damascus and Baghdad at the price of US$600 (¤493) for a round-trip economy class ticket.

The official said Iraqi Airways is working to renovate its fleet by buying five Airbus aircraft and training Iraqi pilots in Arab countries, including Jordan.