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Thursday, Oct 16, 2008
TEHRAN (AFP)–Private Iranian carrier Mahan Airlines said Thursday it would operate three flights a week between Tehran and Baghdad, the first scheduled air link between the two cities in nearly 30 years.
Services were halted on the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980.
The company’s first flight landed at Baghdad’s international airport Tuesday with 192 passengers on board.
Mahan, which was set up 16 years ago and flies to the U.K., Germany, India, China and Thailand as well as to domestic destinations, said it had plans for flights from the Iranian holy city of Mashhad (the burial place of the eighth Shiite Imam) to Baghdad and Najaf (the burial place of the first Shiite Imam). No date was given.
In November 2005, an Iraqi passenger plane landed in Tehran, marking the first time in 25 years an Iraqi aircraft touched down there.
Iran and Iraq are both majority Shiite Muslim countries and many pilgrims from each country visit holy sites in the other every year.
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