Saudi Airlines to operate first Baghdad flight in 27 years

State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines will launch its first flight to Baghdad in 27 years on Monday, state media says, amid a thaw in ties between the Arab neighbors.

The airline, also known as Saudia, will depart from the Red Sea city of Jeddah, barely two weeks after Saudi budget carrier flynas made the first commercial flight from Riyadh to Baghdad since 1990.

“Saudi Arabian Airlines will inaugurate regular flights between the kingdom and Iraq after an interruption of 27 years,” the official Saudi Press Agency reports. “The resumption of flights is in line with growing ties between the two brotherly countries.”

Flights between Iraq and Saudi Arabia were suspended in August 1990, after former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein ordered his troops into neighboring Kuwait.

— AFP