UAE's Emirates to resume flights to Baghdad after shooting

Emirates Airline, the United Arab Emirates' biggest passenger carrier in the Middle East, said on Tuesday it will resume direct flights from Dubai to the Iraqi capital Baghdad as of Sept. 17 after they were suspended in January following a shooting near Baghdad International Airport.

"After conducting an exhaustive safety and security review, we have decided to restart services between Dubai and Baghdad," Emirates' Vice President for Commercial Operations Sheikh Majid Al Mualla said.

The company said in an e-mailed statement that it will operate four weekly flights to Baghdad, served by an Airbus A330-200 aircraft in a three class configuration.

Emirates suspended its flights to Iraq after unknown attackers shot at a passenger plane of flydubai, the Dubai-based budget airline, while it was landing on the Baghdad International Airport on Jan. 26.

The gunshots, which Iraqi authorities claimed were shot unintentionally and came from a nearby wedding ceremony, caused damage to the Boeing 737 aircraft's fuselage. No casualties were reported.

Baghdad has been part of Emirates' route network since 2011. The airline operates four weekly services to Erbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, and a double daily service to Basra, the southern port city and Iraq's only access to the Persian Gulf.