Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings has scheduled three new routes to Iraq and one to Armenia as it expands its network farther east.

The German airline, which resumed flights to Dubai at the start of the winter 2023-24 season after a seven-year absence, plans to commence a trio of services to Erbil, the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Flights to Erbil International Airport (EBL) from Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) and Hamburg Airport will begin on Dec. 19, followed by Stuttgart Airport the next day. Operations from the three German airports will each be twice a week using Airbus A320-family aircraft.

The new routes join Eurowings’ existing flights from Dusseldorf International Airport (DUS) to Erbil, which launched in December 2020. Flights on this 2,094-mi. (1,820-nm) sector are currently provided twice a week.

The LCC is one of three airlines to connect Germany and Iraq nonstop at the present time, data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser shows. Iraqi Airways and UR Airlines each fly from Erbil to Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich, while UR Airlines also offers flights to Hanover (HAJ).

Once Eurowings’ new routes begin, nonstop scheduled weekly capacity between Germany and Iraq will increase to about 7,000 two-way seats, up by about 52% on pre-pandemic levels. Eurowings will account for approximately 45% of the total capacity, with its new routes likely targeting the community of some 300,000 Iraqis living in Germany.

Alongside the Iraq expansion, Eurowings intends to launch seven more new routes in December 2023, offering routes from BER to Innsbruck, Austria; Tbilisi, Georgia; and Tromso, Norway. New service will also be offered on four more sectors: Dusseldorf and Ivalo, Finland; Hanover and Munich; Hamburg and Tromso; and Salzburg and Amsterdam.

Additionally, Eurowings has scheduled a new route to Armenia, due to begin during the northern summer 2024 season. A weekly service from BER to Yerevan’s Zvartnots International Airport will start on May 3, 2024, using A319 equipment. The route will join the airline’s existing flights to the Armenian capital, which are scheduled to operate weekly from Cologne/Bonn and DUS during the summer of 2024.