Iraq: Getting there & around

Some commercial flights have now been re-established to Iraq, but there are no formal schedules, and flight details change by the week. Royal Jordanian Airlines (www.rja.com.jo/default.aspx) flies between Amman and Baghdad International Airport, while Austrian Airlines (http://www.aua.com/au/eng) offers a service between Vienna and Kurdistan in the north of the country. Hamburg International Airlines also flies into the Kurdistan region, with services to Erbil and Sulaimaniyah airports. Expat Airways, a no-frills Iraqi airline operating between Amman and Baghdad, has raised eyebrows since it opened last year for its controversial policy of banning non-Western passengers.

Travelling overland to Iraq from Jordan, Syria and Iran is well-nigh impossible (and inadvisable) for foreigners. However, driving from Turkey into Kurdistan is a possibility.

There have been no passenger ships operating to or from Iraq since the start of the Gulf War.

Iraq has a good road network and there are buses between towns and cities, plus a rail line that connects Baghdad to Mosul and Basra. Shared taxis are used between towns and cities in the north of Iraq. Road travel is dangerous, however, due to the high incidence of bombings, explosions, car-jacking and robbery.