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First direct flights between Erbil, Athens takes place Sunday

The New Region

Feb. 23, 2025 • 2 min read
Image of First direct flights between Erbil, Athens takes place Sunday The first direct Aegean Airlines flight from Athens touched down in Erbil on Sunday, February 23, 2025. Photo: Handout

The Aegean Airlines passenger plane landed at Erbil International Airport at around 4 am, carrying 97 passengers, with the return flight taking place an hour later, carrying 98 passengers on board.

 

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Greece-based Aegean Airlines operated the first direct flights between Erbil and Athens on Sunday, with the flight carrier set to operate two flights per week between the Kurdistan Region and Greece - every Sunday and Wednesday, according to the Aegean Group.

 

The Aegean Airlines passenger plane landed at Erbil International Airport at around 4 am, carrying 97 passengers, with the return flight taking place an hour later, carrying 98 passengers on board.

 

The inaugural flight from Athens was launched in the presence of Greece's Consul General to Erbil Nikolaos Stergioulas, EIA Director Ahmed Hoshyar, and Aegean’s Middle East Regional Key Account Manager Spyros Koutelas. 

 

The three officials “stressed the importance of Aegean Airlines providing their services in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq, and the region as a whole,” according to a statement published by the airport.

 

The statement described the Erbil-Athens connections as paving the way for “the improvement of the economic sector through enhancing the Kurdistan Region’s relations with Greece.”

 

The Aegean Airlines' direct flights to Erbil would "impact the Region’s economy, politics, and international relations,” with Greece and Europe as a whole. 

 

The return flight to Athens landed early Sunday morning at the Athens International Airport at around 5 a.m. 

 

The Athens flight comes less than a year after the EIA carried out its first direct flight from Erbil to London in June 2024. 

 

There are currently direct flights between Erbil and several other European countries, including Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands. 

 

The EIA currently offers direct flights to 29 destinations in 16 countries based on data from the Flight Connections website, with a total of 18 airlines flying to and from the airport.

 

As the closest European country, the Kurdistan Region and Greece have on several occasions shown interest in developing bilateral relations between Erbil and Athens. 

 

Greece upgraded its representative office to Consulate General in 2018. Greece opened its first trade office in the Kurdistan Region capital city in 2009. 

 

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