Air travel takes off in Iraq 

If there's one business that's quite literally taking off in Iraq right now, it's air travel, with more and more Iraqis lining up to get out of their troubled land, either for a break or forever.

Since resuming flights a year ago after being grounded for 14 years by sanctions, Iraqi Airways now operates 20 flights a week to destinations like Amman, Damascus, Istanbul and Dubai.

Many are fully booked, producing a hectic scramble at Baghdad airport when the gate is called, as desperate passengers clamber over one another to get to the front of the line.

Routes to Beirut, Cairo, Saudi Arabia and Iran are expected to begin in the coming weeks, and a flight to London from Basra or Baghdad is on the cards for late September or October.

"The expansion is going very well," Captain Ali al-Bayaa, chief executive of the airline and a former pilot, said on Thursday as he oversaw operations at Baghdad's airport, possibly the most heavily defended airfield in the world.

"We should have a flight starting to Cairo in the next 10 days, which will be very popular," he said.

For 18 months after Saddam Hussein was toppled, the country remained too dangerous for commercial airlines, with insurgents occasionally firing shoulder-fired missiles at aircraft.

Then Royal Jordanian began a regular service to and from Amman, employing South African pilots and air crew to fly the route, which involves a dizzyingly tight spiral take-off and landing in Baghdad to avoid the threat of rocket attack.

Now, two and a half years after Saddam's fall, there are half a dozen airlines jetting in and out of Baghdad, supplying a rapidly growing demand for air travel. At the same time, travel agencies are opening up again after years of inactivity.

Flying carpet

As well as Iraqi Airways and Royal Jordanian, little known carriers including Tigris Air, Jupiter, Orbit, Ishtar, Flying Carpet and Kurdistan Airways have sprung up.

While some travellers might have reservations about flying an airline called Flying Carpet, it doesn't seem to bother most Iraqis, particularly those looking for a cheap way out.

Violence and insecurity have driven thousands of families to despair, prompting those that can afford it to leave, at least until the situation settles down - or maybe longer. For $300 they can overfly Iraq's bandit lands to safety abroad.

Large Iraqi expatriate communities have sprung up in Amman, Damascus, the United Arab Emirates and Cairo, where the Heliopolis district has been dubbed "Little Baghdad" by some.

As well as exiles, those that want to escape Iraq's summer heat, when the temperatures soar above 120 degrees, are also boosting activity, as are business travellers.

In Baghdad and in the northern cities of Arbil and Sulaimaniya, which have avoided most of the chaos affecting the rest of the country, travel agencies are opening their doors.

Laru Travel, with offices in Baghdad, Arbil, Cyprus and Jordan, calls itself Iraq's first professional travel agency. Chief Executive Lana Qassim says business is going well.

"I really didn't expect we'd be dealing with so many requests so soon," she said in her office in Arbil recently.

"It's not just things like flights to Amman or Dubai, people want to fly to the States and Europe as well - it's becoming a real business travellers' mentality."