Focus on Baghdad airport

Passengers on a charter humanitarian flight used Terminal C at Baghdad International Airport for the first time last weekend. But no one is saying when the large international airport's other terminals may actually open to commercial traffic. Airport access has been tightly controlled by the US military ever since April, when Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled. The terminal has been restored to its former glory of what it used be prior to 1991, with its polished floors and arched decorative ceilings. A small number of charter flights, usually one or two per day, have been operating out of a cargo terminal off to one side of the main airport for the last several months. Various airport officials say the number of daily passengers quickly overwhelmed the small waiting area in the cargo terminal. "As the operation grew after the Coalition Provisional Authority [CPA] approved a charter contract, there was pressure to open Terminal C," Howard Tonks, a United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) coordinator, told IRIN. Airserv is operating humanitarian charter and cargo flights from Amman to Baghdad. A Saddam-era poster at its office in Amman, Jordan, could be taken as explaining why the airport is still off-limits to all but a select few. "This is our enemy" says the caption under a picture of a soldier hefting a surface-to-air missile (SAM) to his shoulder. But the SAM he holds is the same as that of a number fired at aircraft in Iraq since April, none of which has met its mark, so far. All aircraft coming into Baghdad International Airport take off and land through airspace controlled by coalition troops, which entails a tight spiral off the runway to an altitude high enough to be out of range of SAMs, or a tight spiral down. About 5,000 SAM-7s could still be in Iraq, according to military estimates. Three air services are operating, nonetheless. Airserv, Royal Jordanian airlines, which is flying the charter humanitarian flights in conjunction with the US-led administration - the CPA and UNHAS flights - which bring in aid workers and cargo as well. Meanwhile, international airlines are chomping at the bit to offer services, according to Huda Niaimy, the executive director of the Atlas Travel Agency, which used to handle much of the international ticketing in Iraq from 1986 to 1991 when UN sanctions closed the airport. "As travel agencies, we're all affected," Niaimy told IRIN. "The airport would really make the work better," she added. Atlas is virtually the only travel agency open at the moment. Turkish Airlines and Saudi Arabia Airlines also opened their doors every morning just to let customers know they were ready, but could not sell any tickets yet, because they did not know when the situation would change, Niaimy said. Her agency has also been negotiating with Czech and Japan Airlines to sell tickets. "Keeping the Baghdad airport closed and the Basra airport in the south closed really hurts business," Niaimy maintained. Officials announced they would open the Basra airport, but so far no commercial flights have been scheduled. "We used to bring groups from all over the world - Pakistan, Lebanon, Madagascar, India, The Netherlands, Austria, Germany and Italy," she said. "Now we're completely finished." Only humanitarian agencies and journalists contact her now. For 12 years of sanctions, the travel agency also offered land transport from Amman. Tourists usually go to Iraq to see its holy shrines. "Most people around the world are scared to come to Iraq now because of the war," Niaimy observed. Up and down the busy Sa'dun Street near the Atlas office, scores of other travel agencies and airline offices are shut. There is no timetable for when commercial flights will start either, according to James Smith, a CPA spokesman, even though 35 companies have expressed interest. "We will open the airport when we feel all the security, immigration and customs issues are resolved," he told IRIN. "We're not there yet." Smith said people who wanted to come to Iraq seemed to find a way in. Many humanitarian groups, for example, had chartered their own aircraft, and coordinated with the CPA to land at the airport. No one had yet complained about the restricted access, he said. "We know there's a lot of interest, but we have to be prudent," he noted. In the meantime, Iraqi immigration officials are being trained to check passports and other documents. US troops did the job before and they still use much of the non-commercial part of the airport as a base. "The airport is being used by the Americans, for what purposes, we don't know," Niaimy said. Atlas and other private companies continue to book travellers by road to Amman and Damascus, Syria. Some humanitarian groups come by car, while others link up with a military flight or the regular UN flights.