Shafaq News- Baghdad

Civilian air traffic crossing Iraqi airspace has increased by approximately 31% since the reopening of previously restricted zones last month, Iraq’s Ministry of Transport announced on Sunday.

Ehab Saad, Director General of the General Company for Airports and Air Navigation Management, attributed the rise partly to expanded flight route options and greater flexibility in managing Iraqi airspace, noting that traffic growth in the subsequent period exceeded the rates recorded immediately after the reopening.

On September 18, Iraq lifted restrictions on airspace that had been reserved for military and security operations for nearly a decade, following ISIS’s seizure of large parts of the country in 2014. An informed source told Shafaq News at the time that most of the reopened zones were in western Iraq, extending from Al-Anbar through Najaf to Al-Muthanna.