ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraq’s transport ministry on Wednesday said that Baghdad International Airport was temporarily closed due to an unforeseen malfunction that required precautionary attention, adding that it will reopen “within the next few hours.” 

The airport will restart operating “as soon as maintenance work is completed and final technical inspections are conducted,” Maytham al-Safi, spokesperson for the ministry, told the state-run Iraqi News Agency.

“Specialized technical teams immediately began diagnostic and repair work according to internationally approved standard procedures,” Safi said, repudiating rumors regarding the presence of “any local or international security problems that prevented the airport's reopening.”

There has been no public announcement regarding the Baghdad airport’s reopening as of the time of this article. 

Non-weather-related shutdowns at the Baghdad airport are not a common occurrence.

A week-long GPS disruption in October, however, created problems for flights and ground transportation, causing delays and canceled deliveries. The most common cause for closure remains reduced visibility and poor weather conditions.

Baghdad International Airport has also repeatedly faced disruptions over the past two decades due to security incidents, rocket attacks, technical failures, and regional instability.

In recent years, authorities have sought to modernize and rehabilitate the airport’s infrastructure, which has long suffered from aging systems, limited maintenance, and years of conflict-related damage.