Turkey extends flight ban on Sulaymaniyah International Airport until January 2026

SULAYMANIYAH — Turkey has extended its flight ban on Sulaymaniyah International Airport until Jan. 6, 2026, the airport’s public relations department said in a statement.

The extension, issued by Turkey’s Civil Aviation Authority, continues to block all air traffic from Turkey to Sulaymaniyah and closes Turkish airspace to flights destined for the airport.

The original suspension was announced by Turkish Airlines on April 3, 2023. Initially planned to last one month, the ban has been repeatedly extended, most recently in July this year until today. The closure has now been in effect for more than two and a half years.

Ankara has accused the Sulaymaniyah-based Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of supporting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK—an allegation that has prompted a series of punitive measures, including the ongoing airspace restriction.

Following the 2017 Kurdistan independence referendum, Turkey suspended flights to both Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. Restrictions on Erbil were lifted in July 2018, but the ban on Sulaymaniyah remained for an additional 16 months.

The continuing closure has disrupted commercial air traffic and economic activity in the Kurdistan Region’s second-largest city. During President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Erbil in April 2024, Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, a senior PUK official, urged him to reconsider the measure, citing its economic and regional impact.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s Ministry of Transport has instructed the Civil Aviation Authority to begin procedures to rename Sulaymaniyah International Airport after the late Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, following a request backed by the prime minister’s office.

Talabani, widely known as Mam Jalal, served as Iraq’s first Kurdish president from 2005 to 2014. He founded the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in 1975 and played a central role in Iraq’s post-2003 political transition. The airport, which opened in July 2005, has grown into a key international gateway for the Kurdistan Region.