Kuwait Jazeera Airways To Operate Flights To Iraq Within Days-Report

Thursday, Apr 05, 2012

BEIRUT (Zawya Dow Jones)--Kuwait's publicly traded Jazeera Airways will operate flights to Iraq within days under an agreement signed with Iraq Civil Aviation Authority, or ICAA, Kuwait-based Al Anba daily reports Thursday.

ICAA has agreed that the carrier operates flights between the two countries within two weeks, Karim Nouri, media adviser to the Iraqi ministry of transport, said according to the paper. The agreement is part of efforts to end pending issues between the two countries, he added.

Jazeera Airways, which has a fleet of 12 fully-owned Airbus A320s, said last month that it had secured rights to operate a route to Iraq's Al Najaf--a holy city of Shia Islam--and that it intends to open the route within six months. It also said that it will be the first Kuwaiti airline to operate a scheduled service between Kuwait and an Iraqi city.

This was the result of talks between the two governments which also allowed Kuwaiti airlines to operate routes to other Iraqi cities, such as Mosul, Baghdad, and Erbil.

Newspaper website: http://www.alanba.com.kw/AbsoluteNMNEW/templates/economy2010.aspx?articleid=281230&zoneid=17&m=0

-By Beirut Bureau, Zawya Dow Jones; +961-1-985 757; BeirutZDJ@zawya.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-04-12 0440GMT