Once a military landing site, Al-Hamza airport in the Shiite holy city of Najaf opened its doors to commercial flights this week after undergoing a multimillion-dollar revamp that officials hope will usher in an increase in religious tourism. The southern Iraqi city, which is home to the shrine of Iman Ali, the son-in-law of The Prophet, Mohammed, attracts more than eight million pilgrims a year.
"About three million of these come from outside Iraq, and even during the war people were travelling by bus and on foot, so you can imagine what will happen after this airport is fully operating," said Nazeh Khajah, the head of marketing and public relations for the airport's developer, Aqeeq Aviation, a subsidiary of Al-Aqeelah, a Kuwaiti group. He declined to give details about the size of the investment.
A privately held company, Al-Aqeelah has a diversified portfolio of businesses throughout the Middle East covering aviation, industrial projects, property development, fund management and Islamic finance and investment, as well as services related to oil and gas. Mr Khajah said that the project, which Aqeeq began three years ago, had faced a number of delays due to Iraq's instability and security issues. In 2003, a massive car bomb in Najaf claimed the lives of hundreds of people and one of the leading Shiite clerics.
Mr Khajah said that Al-Aqeelah went ahead with this week's soft launch on the instructions of the Iraqi government, despite the fact that renovation is still under way. "It will take us three to six months to complete the renovations, but for the time being, Iraq's government wants to tell the world 'We are stable and we are ready for tourism'," he said. The airport has one runway and a capacity of 500 passengers. "Things there are still very primitive, but as a result of this soft launch we have received a lot of requests from Iranian and Gulf airlines to start flying to Najaf," said Mr Khajah.
As well as providing the investment for the project, Aqeeq Aviation will manage all of the airport's operations, including its security. The company hopes that the airport will increase tourism by 10 per cent by the end of this year. Flights between Tehran and Baghdad resumed in the summer of 2005. According to Reuters, Iran said in November that it was pressing Iraq to increase the number of Iranian pilgrims allowed to visit Shiite sites each year from 50,000 to three million.
Aqeeq Aviation plans to launch Najaf Airlines within three to six months, Mr Khajah said. "This will be a budget airline. We are the first [to operate this route] and will have two 100-passenger aircraft flying from countries within the region, starting with Kuwait and Iran," he said, adding that the airline would purchase more aircraft as demand increased. Al-Aqeelah International Real Estate, another subsidiary of the parent company, plans to develop 200,000 residential units and a number of hotels in Najaf. "We still haven't finalised the details of these developments, so we haven't announced any details yet," said Mr Khajah.
Commenting on the significance a Kuwaiti company investing in Iraq, which invaded Kuwait in 1990, Mr Khajah said that public opinion had changed after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's government in 2003. "Kuwait always had a close cultural connection with Iraq; the only problem was Saddam," he said. Ghassan Hussain, Iraq's ambassador to Bahrain, said earlier this month that direct flights between the two countries could resume within a month, pending Iraq's approval of a proposal from Bahrain. The ambassador said that there were plans to relaunch a ferry service between the two countries, which would boost tourism and potential business contacts.
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