Austrian Airlines starts scheduled flights to Iraq

VIENNA, Dec 12 (Reuters) Austrian Airlines today said it had started twice weekly flights to the northern Iraqi city or Arbil, making it the first European carrier to operate a scheduled service to the country.

''The jet landed as scheduled on December 11 at Arbil's international airport,'' Austrian said in a statement, adding flights were operating every Monday and Friday.

Partly state-owned Austrian had already announced in January that it would launch regular flights to the capital of the country's Kurdistan region, but had cancelled its plans a month later following a review of the circumstances.

Austrian was the first European carrier to start services to Sarajevo and Pristina in the wake of the war in former Yugoslavia.

REUTERS SHB BD2004