April 27 – The first commercial flight in 20 years between Baghdad and London landed at Gatwick airport given the delay it suffered owing to the volcanic ash cloud, said the airport in a statement released on Monday. The 10-hour-long flight IA237 carrying 30 passengers landed at 11:08 pm (2208 GMT) Sunday after coming via Malmoe in Sweden.
Speaking on the occasion, Iraq’s civil aviation director Adnan Blebil said: “I am happy. But if western companies had been more cooperative, we could have started (flights to the West) several years earlier. There will be two flights a week now. They will fly via Malmoe on the way out but the return flight will be direct,” Blebil said.
This flight was the first after UN sanctions were imposed in 1990 in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.
