Iraq to build four new airports over the next decade.

Iraq plans to construct four new provincial airports over the next decade, transport minister Ahmed Murtada recently stated. Terminals with the capacity to handle two million passenger annually, would be built in Niniveh, 400kms from Baghdad, and Najaf, 160kms for the capital.

Kirkuk province near Turkey, would see a 400,000 passenger airport built, as would Missan province, 360kms south of Baghdad. Murtada added that a new ceneral control tower would be built in Baghdad. The ministry has drawn up a ten year plan which domestic passenger numbers would rise from 116,000 a year today to 450,000 in the year 2012.

Iraq resumed domestic flight in November 2000, and has major airports at Basra and Niniveh, in the south as well as the capital. Baghdad airport re-opened two years ago, after a decade of closure due to UN sanctions imposed over the invaision of Kuwait in August 1990.

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