Turkey resumes flights to Sulaymaniyah after 945-day suspension

SULAYMANIYAH — Turkish Airlines will resume flights to Sulaymaniyah International Airport late Friday, ending a 945-day suspension first imposed on April 3, 2023, when Turkey closed its airspace to the city.

Flight TK808 is scheduled to depart Istanbul at 10:30 p.m. with 162 passengers aboard a Boeing 737-800 and will arrive in Sulaymaniyah at 1:10 a.m. on Nov. 3. It will be Turkish Airlines’ first flight to Sulaymaniyah in 135 weeks. The carrier plans four weekly flights — on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

Turkey’s ban, introduced after Ankara accused the Sulaymaniyah-based Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of supporting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, severely disrupted commercial travel to the Kurdistan Region’s second-largest city and was extended repeatedly over more than two years.

The decision to lift the suspension followed an Oct. 9 meeting in Ankara between Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In a statement that day, the Kurdistan Region Presidency said: “We express our gratitude to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who during his meeting with President Nechirvan Barzani ordered the resumption of Turkish Airlines flights to Sulaymaniyah and the reopening of Turkish airspace.”

On Oct. 15, Sulaymaniyah International Airport’s Public Relations Department confirmed that Turkey’s Civil Aviation Authority had lifted the flight restriction, reopening its skies to Sulaymaniyah-bound aircraft.

Iraq’s Civil Aviation Authority has approved renaming the facility Jalal Talabani International Airport, but Turkish Airlines continues to list the destination under its original code, Sulaymaniyah International Airport.