Manufacturing Industry

Yemen operates Iraq flight and Morocco to follow

Airline Industry Information, Oct 3, 2000

A humanitarian flight operated from Yemen to Iraq was postponed briefly on 29 September after Saudi Arabian authorities refused the aircraft entry into their airspace.

The flight, which was operated by Yemeni Airlines with authorisation from the United Nations (UN) sanctions committee, was eventually given clearance however to fly across Saudi territory to Jordan. Jordanian authorities then allowed the flight, which was carrying the Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister, to fly onto Iraq since it had UN approval.

Morocco also indicated that it would be operating a humanitarian flight on 29 September, becoming the third Arab state to airlift humanitarian cargo to Iraq according to Itar-Tass.

This flight has however been postponed until 2 October at the request of the UN sanctions committee so that members can review the flight request, which was submitted on 28 September.

Another flight planned from Iceland is on-hold as the USA has asked for more information regarding the flight`s cargo and passengers according to Reuters. Lastly, a humanitarian flight from Paris to Baghdad scheduled for 28 September was cancelled because the French and Belgian governments have refused to support it according to Xinhua.

((Comments on this story may be sent to aii.feedback@m2.com))