National carrier suspends flights to Baghdad Saturday

AMMAN — For security concerns, the Royal Jordanian (RJ) suspended its flights to Baghdad for Saturday, the national carrier’s spokesperson Basel Kilani said.

Kilani said that the suspension of RJ flights to the Iraqi capital was only for 24 hours [Saturday], adding that the decision was taken based on estimates of the security situation in Iraq. 

“We will re-examine the situation on Sunday to see whether to go on with the suspension or resume flights to Baghdad,” Kilani told The Jordan Times over the phone on Saturday.

He also said that RJ operates 28 weekly flights to Iraq via four routes: 11 to Baghdad, nine to Erbil, four to Basra and four to Suleimaniyah. The two weekly flights to Mosul have been already suspended for weeks after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took over Iraq’s second largest city, Kilani added. 

Asked whether RJ would consider axing flights over Iraq as Emirates Airline has done, Kilani said: “That is possible but all is dependent on developments to the security situation in Iraq.”

Emirates Airline has rerouted flights over Iraq due to concerns about missile strikes following the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Emirates has decided to use different flight paths.

Halting flights to Baghdad raises the number of destinations that RJ has suspended due to security reasons to seven, including Benghazi, Mosul, Damascus, Aleppo, Tripoli and Tel Aviv.

The local carrier suspended its operations between Amman and the Libyan capital Tripoli earlier this month after the Libyan civil aviation authority said the city’s international airport would be closed due to fierce clashes between militias aiming to control it.

RJ’s flights to Syria have been suspended since 2012, while flights to Mosul in Iraq came to a halt in June.

Flights to Benghazi in Libya have been suspended since mid-April.

In a statement released earlier in July, RJ said it has “suffered big losses as a result of closing these stations”.

In 2012 and 2013, the airliner incurred losses totalling JD19.4 million because of suspending service to Damascus and Aleppo, and also changed the route of its operations between Amman and Beirut.

The airline said it also expects to witness losses in the first half of 2014 because of the destination closures.