Ground handlers halt Iraq-Iran flight services
Shafaq News- Baghdad
Ground-handling companies have stopped servicing Iraq-Iran flights at airports nationwide, effectively bringing air travel between the two countries to a standstill, a source at Iraq's Ministry of Transport told Shafaq News on Friday.
All Iraqi and foreign airlines carrying passengers between the two countries have stopped operating, the source said. “Flights had already been running at reduced capacity since March because of the war [between the US and Iran], and Iranian carriers were the last to keep flying.”
Iran's Mahan Air and Sepehran Airlines apologized for canceling their flights, according to the source. Menzies Aviation and National Aviation Services (NAS), the two ground-handling companies contracted by Iranian airlines for pre-departure and post-arrival services, said they could no longer provide them for fear of US Treasury penalties.
The US Treasury announced sanctions on Sept. 8 against 36 entities linked to Iran's aviation sector, including 27 airlines. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later said Iranian airlines would cease international operations from Sept. 23.
No nationwide order to halt the flights has been issued. The Ministry of Transport directly controls only the Baghdad and Basra airports, the source said. Najaf airport is run by the provincial government, the Erbil and Al-Sulaymaniyah airports by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which governs the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq, and Kirkuk airport by the province's investment commission.
A directive covering all airports would have to come from the federal government or Iraq's Civil Aviation Authority, which has authority over airports nationwide, according to the source. “The absence of such an order may reflect the sensitivity of the moment, with talks with Iran ongoing.”
Most Iranian travelers arrive through Baghdad and Najaf, the closest airports to the Shiite shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala. Basra has handled no flights from Iran for some time, the source said, because of its distance from the shrine cities and the need for onward domestic flights.
Iranian pilgrims may now fly domestically to Iranian provinces near the Iraqi border and cross into Iraq by land, according to the source.
Najaf, initially spared because of flights already booked with Iranian airlines, has since joined the halt. Its airport management suspended all flights to and from Iran from 2:00 a.m. on Friday until further notice, citing official instructions from the relevant authorities.
Aziz al-Tamimi, managing director of Aviation for All, told Shafaq News that Iranian carriers operate about 50 flights a day to Iraq.
Read more: US sanctions reshape Iraq-Iran travel, airline operations
