Iraq: Sulaymaniyah Airport to Open This Week

Text of report entitled “The Sulaymaniyah International Airport will receive its first flight this week”, published by the Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) newspaper Al-Ittihad on 13 July

The supervisor of the Sulaymaniyah International Airport, SIA, Kameran Ahmad Abdallah, said to the Kurdistani Nuwe newspaper that the airport was ready to receive flights. He added last week they were expecting a test flight from Baghdad airport but due to bad weather conditions in Baghdad the flight was cancelled.

Abdallah said that, provided that the weather condition was suitable during this week, a test flight would take place from the Baghdad airport to SIA. He said that after the test flight the head of the regional government, Umar Fattah, would open the airport.

The opening will be timed to coincide with a flight arriving from Jordan and carrying on board a the Iraqi planning minister, Dr Barham Ahmad Salih, and the transport minister, Salam al-Maliki.