Lufthansa says that it plans to start flying passengers to and from Iraq as soon as the middle of this year. When it does it will be the first major carrier in Europe to do so since the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1990. Lufthansa claims that there is a strong demand for a service to Baghdad and that an easing of security restrictions in the area is now making the route viable. The airline also plans to carry passengers to the northern city of Erbil. Austrian Airlines which is owned by Lufthansa already provides a service to Erbil. The airline first started carrying passengers to Iraq in 2006 but had to take a break in 2007 because of increased tensions in the area. Austrian Airlines resumed the service in April 2008. British based BMI which is also owned by Lufthansa has also expressed an interest in starting a service between London and Baghdad.

Spokesman for Lufthansa in Frankfurt, Boris Ogursky confirmed that there was enough demand for the Iraq bound service to resume although he could not say how many flights would be laid on when it did resume. A German Transport Ministry spokesman has said that an initial agreement was reached with Iraq’s aviation authorities in October last year. He said that Lufthansa’s proposed routes to Iraq were now being examined carefully.

Air Berlin, one of Germany’s low cost airlines, has recently published its schedules from four cities within Germany to the Iraqi cities of Erbil and Sulimaniyah.