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Austrian Airlines announced Thursday the opening on December 11 of the first regular air connection between Europe and Iraq.
The Austrian carrier will offer two flights a week between Vienna and Erbil, the fourth-largest Iraqi city, located in the Kurdish-controlled north of the country, the company statement said.
With this new destination Austrian Airlines "opens up an important connection for the economic reconstruction of the country" by using "the traditional good relations between Austria and the Arab world," the head of the airlines' board of directors, Josef burger, said in the statement.
The flights of Airbus A-319 aircraft will leave Vienna every Monday and Friday for Erbil, with a return flight the same day.
The airline said it chose the city of Erbil because of its strong growth potential and because the United Nations is expected to establish an operational base there and a number of international businesses are interested in the economic development of northern Iraq.
The Austrian carrier has been facing financial difficulties and recently reduced the number of flights to Asian destinations and sold part of its fleet of planes. Cutbacks in about one thousand jobs are also expected to save the airline nearly $51 million annually starting in 2009, according to the company
The Austrian carrier will offer two flights a week between Vienna and Erbil, the fourth-largest Iraqi city, located in the Kurdish-controlled north of the country, the company statement said.
With this new destination Austrian Airlines "opens up an important connection for the economic reconstruction of the country" by using "the traditional good relations between Austria and the Arab world," the head of the airlines' board of directors, Josef burger, said in the statement.
The flights of Airbus A-319 aircraft will leave Vienna every Monday and Friday for Erbil, with a return flight the same day.
The airline said it chose the city of Erbil because of its strong growth potential and because the United Nations is expected to establish an operational base there and a number of international businesses are interested in the economic development of northern Iraq.
The Austrian carrier has been facing financial difficulties and recently reduced the number of flights to Asian destinations and sold part of its fleet of planes. Cutbacks in about one thousand jobs are also expected to save the airline nearly $51 million annually starting in 2009, according to the company
I know that they will basically have a monopoly on travel there, seeing that they are the only major non-Middle Eastern airline serving the route. I can see them using this to their advantage.
BUT - with all of the insecurity in Iraq, will the loads be high? I mean, only contractors, and maybe some families returing home, will be on the flights. But then again, it is Kurdistan. It's alot more stable there than in the south.
Does anyone know how IA's loads are?
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