Erbil International Airport confirms extension of COVID-19 flight ban
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Erbil International Airport (EIA) confirmed on Monday that the extension of a national flight ban aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus applies to airports in the Kurdistan Region.
“The federal government in Baghdad has decided to extend the suspension of flights from Iraq airports until the 22nd of July,” said the airport's director, Talar Faiq, in a press conference held later that day.
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“There is a crisis cell meeting on the matter. We will participate in it to study the extent of preparations needed to start flights again after next week,” she said, adding, “We have already taken all the necessary measures to begin flights.”
“The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) issued new instructions, some of which are compulsory,” Faiq continued. “We in Kurdistan have no problems to implement them,” she said explaining that airport officials had been studying safety regulations of neighbouring countries’ airports and the conditions needed for the safe resumption of flights.
She also stressed that quarantine decisions for arrivals must be made by the region’s Ministry of Health and must be studied in cooperation with other relevant authorities. Establishing proper sterilization procedures was key, she said, because “some countries may not allow planes to land if we do not sterilize bags and the plane sufficiently.”
She pointed out that the airport has never closed altogether since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and flights for cargo, evacuation, the return of citizens stranded abroad, and military flights have continued throughout. “All current flights are exceptional and get approval from the Civil Aviation, Interior, and Communications Authority.”
The initial decision to halt passenger flights came on March 17, when the agency suspended them for a week as the government began to take preventive measures to counter the spread of the novel coronavirus. So far, the order has been extended several times when it was about to expire.
The restriction exempts certain flights, including those of humanitarian organizations such as the Iraqi Red Crescent, health assistance and emergency flights, and those carrying freight but no passengers.
The highly-contagious disease has infected over 13.1 million people worldwide and killed over 578,000, according to the latest government-reported data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The actual figures could be dramatically higher due to insufficient testing capabilities or underreporting.
Editing by John J. Catherine