Germany-based airline Lufthansa has announced it is considering the possibility of launching new passenger services linking Frankfurt and Munich with the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Erbil.

It is hoped that services between Germany and Iraq could be launched as early as 2010 once necessary traffic rights have been obtained, while the company is also examining additional infrastructure requirements. Lufthansa suspended flights to Baghdad at the start of the first Gulf War in 1990, but is poised to become the first major Western carrier to relaunch services to the country since the fall of former dictator Saddam Hussain.

Austrian Airlines, a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group, already operates services between Erbil and Vienna, although both Erbil and Baghdad are now set to be linked to the carrier's Frankfurt and Munich hubs and form part of its global route network.