Flights to Baghdad, Najaf airports canceled again due to dust storm
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Flights at the Baghdad and Najaf international airports were suspended on Sunday after a large dust storm engulfed Iraq’s central and southern provinces, the civil aviation confirmed to Kurdistan 24.
Jihad Diwan, the spokesperson for the Iraqi Civil Aviation, confirmed to Kurdistan 24 that flights at both international airports had been suspended due to the dusty weather that reduced visibility to as low as 500 meters.
This is for the third time since early April that both airports have had to stop flights due to the extreme weather.
Flights will resume once the weather condition improves, the Iraqi state media reported.
The storm is expected to continue into next week, the head of Meteorological Authority Amer al-Jabri told the Iraqi News Agency on Thursday.
A dust storm hospitalized thousands of people across Iraq in early April. The frequent storms also negatively impact the economy due to the need to cancel flights. The Kurdistan Region’s Erbil and Sulaimani airports also canceled flights in April due to major dust storms.
Low precipitation and tree cover coupled with increased desertification are a few of the factors that cause frequent dust storms in the country, according to the Iraqi environmental authorities.
The United Nations ranks Iraq as the fifth most vulnerable country to the adverse effects of climate change. The country is experiencing increasingly severe drought and extreme weather that threatens its livestock and fragile agricultural sector.
An intense dust storm has drastically reduced visibility in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, forcing the international airport to suspend flights.
— Kurdistan 24 English (@K24English) May 1, 2022
📹Sheevan Jabary/Kurdistan 24 pic.twitter.com/GN4WSl8023