Erbil International Airport publishes travel statistics for 2023 year
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Erbil International Airport (EIA) recorded over two million tourists in the 2023 calendar year, according to the airport’s director, Ahmed Hoshyar.
The director stated that the airport schedules 11 direct flights daily among Ankara, Istanbul, Antalya, and various German cities in the summer season.
"We expect more flights through Erbil airport in 2024 despite the security threats to the airport. Regardless, the lives of tourists have been protected," Hoshyar added and noted, "In 2024, travelers visiting Erbil through the airport increased by 15 percent.”
The "security" issues faced are related to the airport being situated near an airbase used by the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. That airbase, along with a variety of other US and Coalition installations in the region, has come under increasing drone and rocket attacks by a variety of Iraqi militias affiliated with the umbrella Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) since the onset of the Hamas-Israel conflict last October.
The attacks have occassionally resulted in delays to flights over the last two months.
Read More: Erbil flights operating according to schedule, says airport director
Meanwhile, Hoshyar revealed that the UAE-based Emirates airline is scheduled to start flights between Erbil and Dubai this year, among three other undisclosed airliners.
“According to the figures of the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA), from 2020 to 2023, EIA cargo recorded the most [volume] in Iraq compared to all four other airports in the country. More than 2,000 tons of commercial goods had been transported monthly through Erbil airport and that figure is expected to reach 2,500 tons monthly in 2024,” the director added.
Moreover, he pointed out, as part of ongoing expansion plans, that the new freight terminal of the airport is currently 60% completed, and should soon allow more traffic capacity once completed.
“The world's largest companies use EIA as the main cargo hub in Iraq,” he further stressed.
Opened on April 29, 2005, the airport was originally constructed as an Iraqi military base in the 1970s by the former Ba’athist regime. In 1991, the United Nations established a no-fly zone over northern Iraq, and the Kurds later took control of the airport following the US invasion of the country in 2003.
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Editing by Dastan Muwaffaq