Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air will commence services to Baghdad on September 1 and add two more destinations in Iraq - the holy city of Najaf and Erbil in the north -- by the end of the month. 

Flights to Iraq’s capital Baghdad will go on sale online from August 6 at www.gulfair.com as well as via travel agencies and Gulf Air sales office, said a statement.
 
Gulf Air will initially operate a five times weekly service to Baghdad using a A320 narrow body aircraft.  The airline hopes to increase this to a daily service in the near future.
 
“Gulf Air will become the first GCC airline to offer direct flights to Iraq, adding to its pioneering legacy,' stated Gulf Air's new CEO Samer Majali.

“The inclusion of Iraq to our regional network makes absolute sense both geographically and economically.   There is a clear demand for a direct service from Bahrain and we have also ensured that our Iraq service will complement our feeder services from Europe and in particular London, which will enable us to capture intercontinental traffic with passengers having less than two hour  connections via our Bahrain hub.”-TradeArabia News Service