Political calculations to predict the end of the Sulaymaniyah airport closure
Will the airport of Sulaymaniyah, in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, re-open later this January? The rumours have started. A re-opening would end a fifteen-month air siege imposed on the city by Turkey, and revive the Sulaymaniyah area’s damaged economy.
The damage to the airport alone has already been calculated at 20,000 dollars per day, Haval Abubaker, the governor of Sulaymaniyah, has said. He added: ‘And that is of course not the only economic damage that the city and the region face due to the airport closure. Prices for consumers go up, tourism is down.’