Qatar airlines to head for al-Basra by the end of this week

The Qatari airline company announced yesterday that it will run trade flights to al-Basra in the south of Iraq, as from August 30th, with the consent of the American- British coalition forces which occupy Iraq.

The executive director of the company, Akbar al-Baker, said that the Qatari airlines received consent of the coalition forces to run a flight on Saturday every week and it "intends to launch extra services and flights as soon as possible." A statement issued yesterday said that the Qatari airline will be the first Gulf airliner which runs regular trade flights to the city of al-Basra in 12 years.

The Transitional governing council in Iraq announced recently that al-Basra airport will be opened by the end of August. It called on several airliners like the Gulf aviation, the UAE, the Qatari airlines, the Jordanian airlines and other companies to make preparations and necessary contacts to that effect.

The Qatari airlines which was established in 1994 owns a fleet of 22 Airbus planes. This number is expected to increase to 30 by 2004.

At the meantime, the company runs 38 flights to Europe and the Indian sub- continent, the Middle East and North Africa.