Flights to northern Iraq’s Kurdish region have been suspended by the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority.
At the request of the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority, all international air traffic to and from Erbil and Sulaymaniyah airports was suspended Sept. 29 until further notice, Qatar Airways said in a statement.
Domestic flights are continuing to operate at the airports.
In addition to Qatar Airways, international flights to Erbil are operated by Austrian Airlines, Egyptair, Turkish Airlines, Turkey’s Pegasus and Royal Jordanian, among others.
Qatar Airways said it hopes to resume operations to one or both airports as soon as possible.
The ban on international flights went into place after Iraq’s Kurds overwhelmingly backed independence in a referendum. The vote angered the Iraqi government, which is taking retaliatory measures such as imposing the international flight ban, according to Reuters.
Kurt Hofmann hofmann.aviation@netway.at
