Viking Hellas Boosts Iraqi Offering

Greek carrier Viking Hellas Airlines is to increase its flight offering between Western Europe and Iraq with new links from Frankfurt and Hamburg to the city of Erbil, via its Athens base. The airline’s revised schedule from October 22 includes the two German cities, its first destinations in the country, alongside its existing connecting flights from Manchester.

Viking Hellas will also offer weekly or twice weekly schedules to Erbil from Amsterdam and Stockholm; to Sulaimanyiah from Stockholm; and to Baghdad from Malmo and Stockholm. It will also offer a fortnightly service to Erbil from Gothenburg and Malmo.

An estimated 39,000 O&D passengers travelled between Germany and Iraq in the past year with the largest traffic flows from Munich, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf. Lufthansa already offers regular flights between Frankfurt and Erbil with a four times weekly service, while airberlin currently has a weekly link to the Iraqi city from Dusseldorf.