Austrian Airlines to resume flights to Erbil on Thursday

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) representive office in Vienna announced on Thursday that Austrian Airlines is planning to resume flights to Erbil in a week's time, a claim later confirmed by the airline to Kurdistan 24.  

Passenger flights to and from the Kurdistan Region resumed at the beginning of August after the federal government lifted a months-long ban on commercial air travel due to travel restrictions aimed at controlling the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The flights are scheduled as follows. Three times a week: Thursday, Friday and Sunday,” the website of the KRG in Austria said, explaining that changes might take place and that the schedule is valid only until October.

Moreover, the website added that Austria has issued strict entry requirements in order to prevent the spread of the highly-contagious virus. In general, the entry of third-country citizens to Austria is forbidden.

Austrian Airlines has not yet made a public statement on the matter, but airline spokesperson Marleen Pirchner told Kurdistan 24 on Friday, “I can confirm that we are currently planning to resume the flight connection as of August 20, 2020.” 

“Transfer passengers also do not require a COVID test,” she added. 

The airline decided to temporarily suspend all regular flight operations in mid-March due to entry bans being imposed across the globe and a rapid decline in demand for air travel as a result of the pandemic. Austrian Airlines announced later this summer that it would be “taking off again and slowly but constantly increasing its flight operations from 15 June 2020.”

Starting on March 17, all flights to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region were cancelled under orders from Iraq’s Civil Aviation Authority. Flights to and from international airports in Baghdad, Najaf, and Basra resumed on July 23, but airports in the Kurdistan Region did not open for commercial travel until Aug. 1.

Read more: First flights land in Kurdistan Region as COVID-19 travel ban lifted

As the first flights landed at Erbil and Sulaimani, airport officials said that, depending on their destinations, some passengers would need to present a PCR, or “Fit to Fly” certificate stating that an individual had recently tested negative for the coronavirus before boarding.

Arriving passengers are “advised to either bring a PCR certificate, no older than 48 hours, those without, will be required to undertake a PCR (coronavirus) test, at their own cost, at the airport. All arriving passengers will be required to sign a pledge form committing to 14 days self-isolation following their arrival in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.”

“Official delegations, business people and tourists on short stay trips are not required to self-isolate if their PCR test is negative,” it further said.

The Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Health on Thursday announced another 569 new coronavirus cases, with total infections nearing 20,000. Health officials also confirmed 13 new fatalities as a result of COVID-19 complications in the previous 24 hours amid a continued spike in daily infections.

Editing by John J. Catherine