ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Mosul International Airport is set to host its first international flights later this month, carrying pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, a councilor said on Monday.
Mohammed Kakayi, head of the Nineveh provincial council’s security committee, told Rudaw that the flights will begin in 20 days, noting that residents of the province have so far traveled to Saudi Arabia by land or through other airports.
However, the airport remains closed to other international flights.
The airport was controlled by the Islamic State (ISIS) when the group rapidly expanded across Iraq and Syria in 2014. It was retaken in February 2017, and the city was officially declared liberated on July 10 of the same year. However, the airport sustained extensive damage during the conflict. Reconstruction began in August 2022 with a budget of around 200 billion Iraqi dinars (around $142.8 million).
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani officially inaugurated the airport on July 16, coinciding with the anniversary of the city’s liberation from ISIS. Earlier in June, an aircraft completed the first test landing at the airport in over a decade.
In mid-December, Switzerland lifted a travel ban on Iraqi airports in Baghdad, Basra, Najaf, Karbala, and those in the Kurdistan Region. A Greek airline also launched a direct flight from Athens to Baghdad earlier, marking the resumption of European flights to Iraq’s capital after more than three decades.
Iraqi Airways, however, remains banned from European Union airspace over safety concerns, along with Fly Baghdad, with only limited exceptions.
The Iraqi government has been actively seeking to have the EU ban lifted. In late November, Iraq’s Transport Ministry said it had made progress toward removing the restrictions on Iraqi Airways as part of broader efforts to modernize and expand the country’s aviation sector.
Hastyar Qadir contributed to this report from Erbil.