AUSTRIAN Austrian Airlines said it had started twice weekly flights to the northern Iraqi city or Arbil, making it the first European carrier to operate a scheduled service to the country.
“The jet landed as scheduled on December 11 at Arbil's international airport,” Austrian said in a statement, adding flights were operating every Monday and Friday.
Partly state-owned Austrian had already announced in January last year that it would launch regular flights to the capital of the country's Kurdistan region, but had cancelled its plans a month later following a review of the circumstances.
Austrian was the first European carrier to start services to Sarajevo and Pristina in the wake of the war in former Yugoslavia.