Baghdad-Mumbai Flights Resume after 21 Years

Iraq will reopen this week the Baghdad to Mumbai air route after a hiatus of more than 21 years, as a growing number of Iraqis are travelling to India, officials said on Tuesday.

"Iraqi Airways will open on Friday the route between Baghdad and Mumbai after more than 21 years of interruption," Akram Louaybi, the flag carrier's spokesman, told Agence France Presse.

"There will be two flights a week between the two cities," he said.

An Indian diplomat in Baghdad said the flights would be operated every Friday and Monday, taking off from Baghdad to the Iraqi holy city of Najaf and onward to Mumbai.

The diplomat further said that the Indian embassy issued an average of 200 visas a day to Iraqis wanting to go to India for medical, professional or educational reasons.

Air links between the two cities were cut in 1991 following international sanctions against Iraq after Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait in August 1990.